A community that cares: One student finds connection at LEAD Charter School
At the start of 2020, Dasia Cross was overworked, overwhelmed and overall disengaged from school. Add a global pandemic, and that’s a recipe for disconnection.
Bellwether Education Partners projected nearly 3 million students went missing from classrooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the combined number of preschool and kindergarten students decreased by 13 percent last year. And in areas lacking resources, students are pushed even further and further to the margins.
As classes moved online, Dasia said she could feel her connection to teachers and classmates growing weaker and weaker. Teachers and students were being pulled in a million directions; Zoom fatigue was setting in; and Dasia’s mental health was suffering day by day. Feeling increasingly isolated, she began searching for a community.
LEAD Charter School came highly recommended from a mutual friend, who vouched for the school’s supportive community and its succinct mission: Get your diploma. Get job ready. Dasia was immediately convinced LEAD was the right fit, but there was one other person she had to convince: her mother.
“I did some research and I talked to my godmother about doing some research before we took it to my mom,” she said, “because my mom? When you bring something to her, you have to have everything ready.”
Dasia eventually convinced her mother to check out LEAD and, after learning about LEAD’s model as a YouthBuild school, its long history of leadership development and its stories of transformation, she too was convinced this was the right place for Dasia. And after the first day of Mental Toughness, LEAD’s new student orientation process utilized by YouthBuild programs across the country, Dasia knew LEAD was exactly where she belonged.
“Every single day, I was happy to go to Mental Toughness. Mind you, it’s the summertime. This is my time to rest and be with my friends, but I used to love waking up and going to Mental Toughness because it was fun. I got to connect with people going through things like I was,” she said. “I saw that staff members were going to give you tough love, but they really do care.”
As COVID has highlighted inequity in education, it’s also spotlighted the rising mental health crisis in school-age children. Last year, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that emergency rooms saw a 24 percent increase in mental-health related visits in children ages 5-11; with a 31 percent increase in children 13 and older. Reports show young people were always struggling with depression, anxiety and trauma, but combined with the fear and stress of the pandemic, it has only increased the severity of this issue. Even as COVID caused young people to withdraw from their school communities, the need for connection never waivers. Because of that, many young people turn to spaces like LEAD and other local Community-Based Organizations to find the connection they crave.
Dasia flashes the peace sign at the 2021 LEAD Charter School graduation.
Before LEAD, Dasia said she never had a social life inside or outside of school. “It was hard to connect and see what people are going through,” she said. But Mental Toughness challenged her and her peers to “open up” and talk about what they were going through, be it family issues, personal struggles, emotional stress and so much more. And as students opened up, she said it helped her see she wasn’t alone.
“When you’re going through certain things, you feel like the world is only against you. But those first two weeks of Mental Toughness really showed me that people go through things and people overcome them,” she said.
As the school year progressed, Dasia said she could feel how much she was changing. She went from someone who hated school to someone who was researching colleges; from neglecting her mental health to protecting and valuing it; from feeling isolated to finding connection in a community that cared, she said.
“That’s really what I love about LEAD; everybody is willing to help you no matter what,” she said.
On Sunday, Dasia moved into the dorms at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. After so many years of feeling disconnected, Dasia is ready for the next chapter of her journey, knowing she’s got a community that will always have her back.
“I can truly say I’ve changed, not just academically, but as a person. I’m a happier person. LEAD has helped me so much, and I know if there’s ever anything I need help with or anything I’m going through, I have a community of people that are willing to be there for me and help.”
“And knowing that I have that support behind me - that’s willing to go above and beyond for me - it makes me feel comfortable to tell my story and be comfortable with the things I have gone through this year. This has been a very hard year for me, but LEAD has helped me make it through.”