Student Scholar Spotlight – Hannah Morris
Student Scholar Spotlight – Hannah Morris
Featured student work during their time as a college scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Hannah Morris
This summer I worked as a teaching fellow for Breakthrough Collaborative, a national leader in education equity that provides empowering educational experiences for traditionally underrepresented students on their path to college. It is also an AmeriCorps program. Breakthrough admits students in middle school and partners with them until they graduate from college. I specifically served as a teacher in the academic summer program. I taught an interdisciplinary course that focused on identity, diversity, justice, and action. I worked with my students to identify a community issue they were passionate about and create an action plan for seeking justice. I also was the head of the Community Novel Committee. This role includes leading a committee that implemented a program-wide reading curriculum. We read Punching the Air by Yusef Salaam, who is one of the Exonerated Five.
Serving with Breakthrough Collaborative was an incredibly valuable learning experience that aligned perfectly with my program. The goal of my program is to combine an understanding of policy with an understanding of childhood education. By teaching with Breakthrough, I was able to get hands on experience in the field of education, but I was also exposed to the nuance of educational policy in particular. I developed important teaching skills, classroom management techniques, educational advocacy, and more. My experience at Breakthrough furthered my desire to pursue educational equity.
I am also working towards educational equity in the Knoxville community. In spring 2021, I started as an intern with the high school program at Thrive Lonsdale, which serves 9th-12th grade students in the Lonsdale neighborhood. In this role, I provide academic support, mentoring, and tutoring to traditionally underrepresented students. Further, this semester, I am helping launch a college preparation program that starts in ninth grade and works with students through the college application and acceptance process.
Working at Thrive was the first place I realized that I was passionate about educational equity, and that passion has been solidified the more than I have gotten involved with the organization. It was working here that first encouraged me to pursue an interdisciplinary major through College Scholars, and in my experience at Thrive, I learned the power of both intervention and prevention in the pursuit of educational equity. Working in the Lonsdale community has also demonstrated the impact of environmental factors on education, such as access to nutritious foods or safe play spaces.