Keishia Thorpe recently became the first Black woman to win the Global Educator Prize, The Washington Post reports. She was born and raised in Jamaica by her grandmother alongside her identical twin sister, Treisha. The two earned track-and-field scholarships to attend college in the United States. The educator graduated from Howard University in 2003, majoring in pre-law and English. When she first landed in the U.S., Thorpe said she thought she had traveled to “the land of milk and honey.” However, those notions quickly faded when Thorpe began tutoring at night during college at a local D.C. charter school.
“I didn’t understand the American system, and how it works, and how some of the schools were flourishing, and some schools had students who were not making the grade. And so that really had an impact on me,” Thorpe explained.
She eventually gave up on attending law school, deciding to become a teacher instead. In 2018, she began teaching at the International High School at Langley Park in Prince George’s County, Maryland, serving students who mostly come from immigrant or refugee families. There, she became a 12th grade English teacher, charged with redesigning the senior English curriculum to give it “a global perspective and a culturally responsible lens.”
In the 2018-2019 school year, she was able to help college-bound students earn nearly $6.5 million in scholarships to 11 different colleges and universities. Thorpe and her sister also co-founded a nonprofit organization entitled U.S. Elite International Track and Field, which supports athletes from impoverished backgrounds, helping them compete internationally. The organization gives away international scholarships and has helped hundreds of student-athletes attend college without accruing any debt. Thorpe also created an annual scholarship and athletic convention where student-athletes in need can connect with coaches and admission officers to get more information on recruitment and college acceptance.
