KIPP Academy Nashville’s founder, Randy Dowell, was teaching in Boston in 2003 when he toured a KIPP school for the first time while on a visit to New York. Every student he met was so engaged, so serious about preparing for college. This was an entire school of college-bound students! They changed his life and eventually, the lives of many others in Nashville . He already knew about the tremendou
s need for top-quality options in our educationally underserved neighborhoods. And after meeting those students, he also knew what was possible. For him, it was a simple equation:
Knowing the Need + Knowing the Solution = Responsibility to Make It Happen
Immediately, he applied to open an additional KIPP school. The KIPP Foundation identified the need in Nashville, and with his motivation to change lives, he moved to Nashville in January, 2004. The School Board was not as convinced as Randy was regarding the need for a KIPP school in their community. After many trials, and much resistance, Randy was able to successfully appeal to the State of Tennessee for approval to open KIPP. He and four staff members opened KIPP Academy Nashville's doors in July, 2005 with our first class of fifth-graders. Those students - who will matriculate to college in 2013 - have been “Proving the Possible” ever since. Next year, they’ll be hard at work on their college applications, continuing to blaze trails as the first Nashville KIPP alumni to make the journey up that mountain to college. This is a wonderful time for education reform in Nashville and in Tennessee. We have great leaders in place who understand what our students need. Because it is such an exciting time of great possibility, we know it’s a time of great responsibility as well.
