Lowcountry Acceleration Academy English content coach Bria Burke-Koskela was recently featured by Teach For America South Carolina (TFASC) as a South Carolina native with a passion for improving the lives of students close to home.
According to the article posted to the TFASC website, “A number of Teach For America teachers grew up in big cities and were assigned to teach in rural communities. Instead, Burke-Koskela landed in a school just 45 minutes from her South Carolina hometown of Summerville.”
After graduating from South Carolina’s prestigious Clemson University, Bria joined Teach for America, a national program that places promising young teachers in schools and districts that struggle to educate underserved populations. After teaching at Colleton County High School for five years, she then joined “a path-breaking public charter high school in North Charleston, even closer to home.”
That school is Lowcountry Acceleration Academy, where Bria quickly established herself as a creative, energetic educator dedicated to helping young learners find a personalized path to high school success.
“We give our students, many already in their 20s, a way to earn high school diplomas as they learn at their own pace,” she said. “They take one class at a time, come in year-round as early as 8 a.m. and leave as late as 6 p.m., work online, and always get one-on-one tutoring.”
She likened the work she and her colleagues do at Lowcountry to the public-spirited mission of Teach for America.
“If we can tap into that potential a little more, we’ll be much better off,” she said. “What has made TFASC and Lowcountry Acceleration Academy so amazing is that these models ask us, as educators, to see students as more than vessels to fill with information. Instead, we see them as fellow individuals with something to contribute.”
To read the full article on Bria, click here. We’re proud of you, Coach Bria!
