Waves Making Waves: An Interview with Cady Tolon ('08)
After National Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday (the first Tuesday of May!), it seems only appropriate to appreciate one of our great WOS Leaders serving in education! Combining her passions for social justice, urban service, social sciences, and education, WOS Leader, Cady Tolon, inspires young scholars every day as a teacher at Crown Preparatory Academy in Los Angeles. After graduating from Seaver College in 2008, Tolon moved overseas to serve and work in Rwanda for three years - teaching at a local school and working with an area nonprofit organization serving regional teachers and schools. While in Rwanda, Tolon discovered her love for teaching and honed in on her passion for education. Upon returning to the United States, Tolon sought out teaching positions within the urban Los Angeles area, and found Crown Preparatory Academy. Currently, she is teaching 5th grade Science and English at Crown Prep, and has taken the time to share with us the incredible work that she and her school do every day.
WOS: Can you tell us a little bit about Crown Preparatory Academy and how you became involved with the school?
Cady: Crown Prep is a charter middle school in the heart of South Central Los Angeles. It serves a demographic that lives 96% below the poverty line. The school’s ethnic makeup is 60% Hispanic, 40% African-American, which is in line with the surrounding neighborhoods. It’s currently in its third year. I came to it by chance, actually! I was working and serving overseas after my time at Pepperdine, and when I came back, I started looking for jobs here. I had always wanted to work in an urban setting and had always liked LA, and Crown Preparatory happened to be one of the schools that I applied to work at.
WOS: What is it about Crown Prep that makes the school different from other schools?
Cady: Crown Preparatory is unique in its structure. As with most charters, you have an extended school day and year, so every minute is maximized. Students are in school from 7:30 am to 5 pm, and it offers remedial work, extensions, and after-school tutoring as well. Crown Preparatory has a very targeted curriculum and instruction set that tries to get the kids where they’re at and build from there. It targets where their academic needs are and then really goes after those needs. There are lots of assessments that are given that can target those gaps, which then help teachers figure out what areas their scholars need the most help and attention in.
WOS: How do you feel the school values (PRIDE – Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Excellence) set Crown Prep Students up for success in the future?
Cady: The character-building piece is huge in any educational system… that you teach to the whole child and not just to how they’re performing academically. You work with them and help them build those character traits that will help them succeed in other circumstances and experiences. When you teach, you are building potential global citizens, and the character traits that you help create go to serve not only their local communities, but a global one. And the PRIDE values that Crown Preparatory has set up are just one way to emphasis this: teaching that a person - no matter what situation they’re in - can persevere.
WOS: Part of Crown Prep’s foundation is a longer school day… Many students (at least in my schools growing up!) complained about long days. Do you ever find that students struggle with this, or are they just excited to have the opportunity to learn?
Cady: I mean, they’re in middle school, so absolutely they struggle with this. They’re not always thrilled to be there, which is to be expected. Some days we do get out earlier, and they always look forward to that... But I will say that the extra school days and the extra school hours are not as big of a deal as people may think. It’s always nice when they’re let out early, and they love the extra time to play with their friends, but a longer school day and school year is just something they’re used to. It’s expected, and they know what it takes to achieve.
WOS: What is your favorite area (subject, topic, etc.) to teach? What do you think is one of the most important fields of learning for students to study?
Cady: I teach English and Science, and before I taught here, my favorite subject and thing to teach would have been social sciences - government, geography, anything related to social sciences. But because things never turn out the way you expect, they have me teaching science! I always hated science growing up. I was never very strong at it, I always struggled, and when I found out that it was what I would be teaching, I really had to get into it and learn it myself. And now I love it! It is so fun to teach, the kids already love it, it’s hands-on and applicable, and the students can really get into. For them, it’s very much like, “I can take a break from school!”, even though they are still learning and engaged in a core subject. It doesn't feel like work for them, and they just love it. I think Social Studies is probably the most important, as far as a core subjects go, because the goal of education is to prepare you to be a well-rounded citizen and to pursue something you may not have anticipated. Social studies, when studied and learned in a well-rounded way, can be the best thing for creating global citizens. For example, Geography is one of the best subjects I think we can teach. It shows us how to be more aware of the world. It teaches that we are neighbors to a lot of really amazing cultures and there is a lot out there that we are not directly next to… And that is huge for learning.
WOS: Some students at Crown Prep (and any school, for that matter) may come from chaotic home lives. How does Crown Prep provide structure and support for students to learn?
Cady: Providing structure and support is key in a couple ways. When they come to the school, it’s key to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment. When you look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, you can see that people need to have basic needs of security met before they can achieve anything higher. Students need to have that security before anything else can take place. At Crown Preparatory, we want them to feel secure physically as far as having a safe campus goes, but also emotionally - they need to feel that they are accepted and valued within their community and that this is a place where they can feel safe being themselves. They need to know that they are all coming from different spots and with different struggles to tackle, and that’s okay. We also have very tight and fluid communication with home. Crown Preparatory teachers are expected to call each student’s home once every other week, regardless of performance. At the beginning of the year, we conduct home visits for as many of our students as possible, just to see what background each student is coming from, what may exist at home for them, and begin establishing relationships with their families. You’re constantly on the phone with parents, giving updates, checking to see if anything is going on at home, if you see something is off with a student, or talking about extra credit opportunities that some students may need. I only teach 5th grade, but I see parents of students I've never taught before at the grocery store and we talk as if they are parents of students in my class. It’s very close-knit. And that helps as far as the kids knowing that there really isn't anything to get away with at school because it will always get back to their families somehow.
WOS: Pepperdine has a pretty active presence of students hoping to pursue careers in education post-grad. Are there ways that can current students at Pepperdine get involved with Crown Prep?
Cady: Oh, absolutely! We've had students looking at doing student teaching here come and observe, and we are always looking for volunteers for people to come help out in the classroom. Since our model is so individualized, we are always looking for people to come help give that individual attention to each student. We also do a Saturday school once a month for students who are struggling or just need that extra help, and for those we often have a lot of community volunteers come through. Everything that we teach at Saturday school is on really basic remedial stuff that anyone can teach, so people who want to volunteer don’t have to worry about not being qualified or trained in a particular subject. It’s often math facts or reading help or that week’s homework… things that anyone can help out on. Crown Preparatory also loves volunteers who are willing to help with basic things - cleaning up the school, make copies, things like that. Something that’s also really cool about Crown Preparatory is that all of the classrooms are college-themed… and mine is Pepperdine! They’re all future Waves looking forward to graduating in 2024, and I cannot tell you how excited they get whenever someone from Pepperdine comes in to volunteer. We had a guy come in to give a motivational speech and show involving yo-yo tricks, and at the end of the show, he told my class that he graduated from Pepperdine and they went nuts. It’s great to have people from Pepperdine come in and volunteer and connect with kids who are just as excited about Pepperdine!
WOS: What is the best part of your work? What is the most challenging?
Cady: The best part is the kids. They can be insanely obnoxious and exhausting, and they take so much energy. But I love them. Especially this year’s group, I have just fallen head-over-heels for them. They are crazy and difficult and frustrating sometimes, but they have such fantastic hearts and work ethics and have shown immense growth. I love seeing growth in people. That’s one of the reasons I became a teacher. I think education provides this irreplaceable method for growth in any society. It’s so rewarding to see that growth in these kids. As far as challenging, they can also be just that. They come from such a wide variety of backgrounds, and you never know what the last ten hours held to change their mood or behavior. When they go home, you never know what might be going on that’s going to impact them in the classroom. You are expected to shape their future and help them perform a certain way, but there’s so much you don’t have control over. They come to you with these challenges, and you still have to do your job and help get them where they need to be each day.
WOS: How did Pepperdine prepare you for a life of service?
Cady: I think before I came to Pepperdine, I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to serve. I had always wanted to do something impactful on the community and on the world; I wanted to create change that would be life-changing, sustainable and global. I started as Communications major and thought I would do journalism, and as I was at Pepperdine, I realized this wasn’t me. I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I would, but still wanted to create change and inspire social justice. After talking to more people, professors, and faculty at Pepperdine, I realized my heart was in education and that was where I wanted to serve. Pepperdine taught me about the necessity of education in society, and the huge need for quality teachers in many places that may not be keen on education. Pepperdine helped show me that you have to inspire change from the ground up. Also, it prepared me by helping me find places where I could actually be in service. My academic advisor was the person who hooked me up with the position in Rwanda, and that has been one of the most meaningful and life-changing experiences I have ever had.
WOS: In your opinion, what is the most important resource that someone serving can give to those they serve? How do you and Crown Prep Academy give this resource?
Cady: I want to say time, but I feel like even more, when you’re serving you need to offer compassion. I think in any service position there can be a feeling of superiority that may come up inside the person serving – this “I’m serving you, you owe me” mentality, or the idea that because you’re serving, that somehow means you know more, or have more or are more than the ones you serve. But when you’re serving, you really need to put this aside. When you serve, it’s not just about being where they’re at, but understanding that there’s not anything that makes either side better than the other. I think that’s a huge part of the Christian message at Pepperdine too. Jesus was not here to condemn, but to show us that we’re all in the same place. As a teacher, that can be tough because you’re teaching children, and as part of the job qualification, you obviously do know more than they do. But I make sure to tell the students all the time that I love them. That was a big revelation this year, to remind them that they are loved and valuable. That helps to put us all on the same level, and to remind the students of their worth.
WOS: If you could give one piece of advice to the world, what would it be?
Cady: I’m a bit obsessed with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She has offered some of the most profound wisdom regarding social justice, and held one of the most inspiring mindsets I can imagine, so my advice is just a long, stolen quote from her. She said, “People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” That line in the middle is my favorite – Do good anyway. I would advise anyone, anywhere, to just do good anyway. :)
Cady, thank you for shaping the hearts and minds of the children at Crown Preparatory and beyond. Your compassion, enthusiasm, and heart are gifts to the children that you teach, and your impact in South Central Los Angeles - and the world beyond - will be felt for generations to come! Thank you for taking the time to share your story, and we appreciate you this month and always! If you would like to learn more about Crown Preparatory Academy, please visit the Crown Prep website at www.crownprep.org/ .
~Alex