Inspirational Woman January 2015: Donnie Smith
Donnie Nicole Smith is an educator, writer, youth advocate and the wife of grammy-award winning writer and community activist Che “Rhymefest” Smith. Donnie has served as an English teacher in the Chicago Public School District in both alternative schools and Magnet Schools including First Lady Michelle Obama’s Alma Mater Whitney Young Magnet High School. Mrs. Smith attended DePaul University earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Secondary Education. She has also studied extensively at the Graduate Level in Curriculum and Instruction.
Having overcome incredible odds, including surviving a sexual assault at the age of 12, growing up with an incarcerated parent who abused crack cocaine and fertility challenges, Donnie brings her resiliency and tenacity to her professional life in order to inspire “at -risk” youth who often feel isolated and degraded by their circumstances. As the Executive Director of Donda’s House Inc., a nonprofit organization co-founded by Kanye West and Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Donnie ensures that Donda’s House remains committed to its mission of providing access to premium arts instruction to youth to inspire, challenge and produce tomorrow’s problem solvers. Her passion as an educator ensures that Donda’s House makes a measurable and sustainable impact that is grounded in Educational Best Practices and inspires lifelong learning.
Donnie received the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Beat the Odds Award in 2002. She is a member of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Black Community Crusade for Children and regularly participates in Fundraising Campaigns and other CDF Initiatives. She has been featured on CNN, in Jet Magazine and numerous other publications. Donnie is profiled in an article called “Getting into Poetry” for the secondary school textbook Literature and the Language Arts: Discovering Literature , and her poetry has been featured in Tembu Tempa: Africana Women’s Self-Poetic.
Mrs. Smith is a staff writer for Black and Married With Kids.Com and writes regularly on her lifestyle blog “Analog Girl in a Digital World” at DonnieNicole.Com .
You are the executive director of Donda’s House. Tell us about the initiative?
Donda’s House Inc. was created by Kanye West, Che “Rhymefest” Smith and myself to provide access to premium arts instruction to youth. We were named after Dr. Donda West, the mother of Kanye, who was an educator for 30+ years. She understood the value of literacy, and prior to her death, she wanted to put a state of the art recording studio in High Schools across the country. To date we have serviced over 115 youth, and we add new youth every semester to our initiatives!
Why was such a program a necessity in the areas where you operate?
Arts education & programming is routinely the first thing to go when schools and governments face budget crisis. There is also a push toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) often at the sacrifice of the arts. Donda’s House is a necessity, because we know that youth who study the arts have more positive life outcomes. They are critical and creative thinkers, problem solvers and have higher self-confidence and esteem.
What are your personal motivations for leading the project?
Growing up, I faced tremendous challenges; a mom who was incarcerated and addicted to crack cocaine and a father who wasn’t around. Programs like Donda’s House, which included Upward Bound, the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schools Program and The Urban League’s Youth Employment program literally saved my life. I always said that when given the opportunity, I wanted to provide the same opportunities for youth who like me and with the right support, also have tremendous challenges to overcome.
You are a inspiration in yourself, tell us about your personal story – why focus on at risk youth?
At-risk youth, often to no fault of their own miss out on certain things – the love of two parents in a healthy relationship, quality food which fuels health and a quality education which is the passport to a better future. If those of us who have overcome challenges, can be a source of support, inspiration and guidance, we can make up for those deficits. I used to run track in High School, and sometimes if one of my teammates ran a poor leg, the rest of us had to make up for it to try to win the race. My personal mission in life is to find those children and help them make up for whatever losses or hurdles they have trouble clearing.
You received the Beat The Odds award from the Children Defense Fund – what did this award symbolize to you professionally?
Marian Wright Edelman is a woman who I have deep respect for, and after meeting her I immediately identified her as a role model and someone that I wanted to become. The Children’s Defense Fund has done so much to change not only my life, but the lives of millions of children by implementing holistic solutions. Professionally, Mrs. Edelman is the standard for servant leadership and the Children’s Defense Fund is the model for effective & long-term impact.
What did the award mean to your personally?
Growing up as a little girl, I was ashamed of my story. I never wanted anyone to know the bad things that I had been through because I had internalized everything as if I was deserving of those experiences. The Beat The Odds Award was the first opportunity to share my story, and to be rewarded via scholarship money for still achieving despite the challenges. For the first time in my life, my voice & my story mattered! I’ve been telling my story ever since.
Do you feel you have beaten the odds?
Interestingly enough, I feel there are always odds to beat. I overcame certain challenges by earning a college education, marrying the love of my life and raising our children in a two parent household but there are new challenges. As long as there are children who aren’t eating, who are being abused by the ones they love and neglected by systemic and generational neglect, there are still more odds I have to beat.
You have also done the noble work of teaching in Chicago public schools – what is the biggest problem with our public school system?
It was a great honor to serve as a teacher in the Chicago Public School System for 10+ years. Learning is a science, that I mastered and now carry with me in all professional areas of my life. It is difficult to reduce the problem of our public school system to just one thing, but what I will say is that we have to start empowering teachers to implement solutions. Too often teachers are demonized and blamed. No one walks into a surgery room and tells the surgeon what to do. If you walk into a court and try to tell the judge or the attorneys what to do, you’d be arrested and held in contempt. Teachers today aren’t respected as professionals and aren’t treated as partners in the education reform movement.
Is there a causal connection between the quality of education and at risk youth?
Michelle Alexander book The New Jim Crow does a great job of explaining how a child’s elementary reading scores is connected to the building of prisons. Without a shadow of a doubt, a quality education makes all the difference in ensuring that at risk youth have a more positive life trajectory.
Let us be very clear – different kids, different zip codes – different rates of success. Your thoughts?
There is a movement in America to create a more equitable system for funding public schools outside of property taxes. Zip codes with higher property taxes tend to have better schools. If we are going to make real change, we have to look at both the property tax funding model, as well as the extra support that children need who often have social challenges (outside of the classroom) that interrupt their learning process in the classroom.
You are very open about your status as a survivor of sexual assault – Why is was it important for you to be public about this?
When a person is sexually assaulted, it is not only an assault on the mind, but also the spirit. Abusers want their victims to feel silenced, singled out and sub-human. By speaking out about my sexual assault I am removing the power away from my abuser AND empowering others to come out of the shadows. Only when we acknowledge the pain, can we start the healing process. 1 in 4 girls experience sexual assault by the age of 18. Unless women like myself talk about it, they are often forced to deal with the pain by themselves.
What can mothers and women do to protect their young girls from such incidents?
Mothers and women have to talk to young girls about their bodies in a way that they understand what’s inappropriate. They have to be encouraged to “tell” if something does happen inappropriately. In my case I was sexually assaulted by my mother’s boyfriend, so I’d also add that mothers have to be very careful who they leave their children with. It’s also very common for family members to sexually assault children, so maintaining open dialogue and knowing the signs of sexual abuse at different stages is the responsibility of the parent.
As you advocate for Donda’s House – are their misconceptions that you always need to clarify?
There aren’t any misconceptions that I need to clarify. We try to be very clear about the purpose of our organization and we have monthly volunteer orientations where anyone can come out to learn more about our work.
Were their personal perceptions that you yourself had that were challenged?
None that I can think of at the moment.
What is the key in your perception in unlocking the potential in at risk youth?
At risk youth are youth first, and they have the same dreams, desires and needs as children born into better circumstances. I recently got back from India, and its pretty safe to say that a 6 year old child is a 6 year old child no matter where they are in the world.
Who’s responsibility is it to save these kids?
In the same way that if we see a child fall and we offer assistance, and we hear a child crying or screaming, perhaps one who has strayed too far from a parent, at-risk youth children are falling, crying and screaming. When we see the high drop-out rates, teen moms and high rates of violence, all of those things are a cry for help. Until we see “these” kids as “our” kids, we will continue to see this divide in achievement.
As a society – what can we do to improve the chances of success for these children?
Everyone has the power to do something. In some cases, it may be a donation (to a tax deductible organization), in other cases it may be volunteering one’s expertise or time. Everyone has the ability to do something. America as a society is one big village and we are only as strong as our weakest link. We have to unite and support each other so that we can collectively face our challenges as a country.
Finally – you have changed your pain into power – how did you do it Donnie?
Faith is my lifeline. I don’t believe that my birth was an accident, nor do I believe that my pain was an accident. I try to take every single thing – good or bad in stride and use it as fuel to leave this world better than I came into it.
