Redding School District

Partnership Educators,

As a little girl growing up in Zimbabwe, Tererai was desperate to learn.  She was secretly doing her brother's homework and over the years learned to read and write from her brother's books.  She would beg her father to let her go to the school.  However, her father refused. 

Then one day, her brother’s teacher discovered that Tererai was doing the homework and worked hard to convince the father to let her come to the school.   Tererai was the only girl in the village going to the school but that time was short lived.  After two semesters, her father received and accepted a brideprice of a cow and she was married off at age eleven.   

Her husband was not a nice man.  Tererai had three children by the time she was eighteen years old.  Then, she met a woman, Jo Luck, from an international organization that was visiting the village.  Jo Luck asked the woman of the village what their hopes and dreams were.  Tererai answered that it was to go to America and get an education.   A shocked Jo Luck replied, “If you desire those things then it is achievable.”    

The next day Tererai wrote down four goals based on things she had heard about.  She wrote that she wanted to study abroad and to earn a B.A., a Master’s and a doctorate.   Not knowing what to do with her scribbled piece of paper, she confided in her mother about the goals.  Her mother said that if those are dreams that you believe in, then bury them and you will see them grow and grow and grow.   Cover those dreams with a rock because that rock will always call you wherever you are in the world.  It was Tererai’s secret.  The rock protected her secret and cared for it.

For many years, Tererai worked and took correspondence courses while saving money.  In 1998, Tererai was accepted to Oklahoma State University.  Her, her five children, and her husband all came to America but the struggles continued.  She had little food and poor housing.  Her husband was not willing to work and so the college tuition became a lower priority.  It was then that Ron Beer stepped in and helped with food, housing and advocated for tuition support.  Eventually, Tererai’s husband was deported back to Zimbabwe and they divorced.  Through all the pressures, Tererai excelled at school and earned her degree.  While at Western Michigan University, writing her dissertation on AIDS prevention in Africa, she met her current husband Mark Trent. 

Dr. Tererai Trent is a professor in Monitoring & Evaluation in Global Health at Drexel University, School of Public Health and just recently won the 2018 NAACP Award for Outstanding Literary Work for her latest book, The Awakened Woman-Remembering & Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams.

Tererai is a reminder that talent is universal, while the opportunity is not.   Her dreams were big but she couldn’t do it alone.  All along her journey, there were people who added value to the continued realization of those dreams.  At any point, the journey could have ended if it wasn’t for someone saying or doing the next needed step.   She needed advocates and understanding.  To break the cycle that many of our students live with every day, we might have to be that next step in their journey.  

Thanks for being there for all of our kids and advocating for their personal journeys and making a difference by looking for ways to help them with their story.  Like Tererai, some student of yours will be telling others of overcoming enormous difficulties and believing in a dream and you will be the side note mentioned that made all the difference.  Those are the stories that we build.  Those are the stories that are about the opportunity of education.  Those are the stories of the Redding School District and the people that work here.  

http://www.oprah.com/own-oprahshow/tererai-trents-story-video