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While working with a literacy program she created as a ��������Ƶ education major, Labrea Pringle checked out libraries at every school she visited in Pennsylvania and New York.

“It was very disheartening to me, so many books not showing representation that black and brown students deserve,” she says.

So, as she was finishing a master’s program in urban education at Temple University, she wrote one. The self-published book on empowerment, “I Am She,” is sold on Amazon. 

“I have a passion for literacy. It’s a true path to freedom in a lot of respects.”

“I used a darker-skinned black girl on the cover and language that my black and brown students would use,” she says.

Pringle used her own literacy program, which won her a grant at ��������Ƶ, in an afterschool program at a Philadelphia high school.

“I have a passion for literacy. It’s a true path to freedom in a lot of respects,” she says.

The student body was 98% black with 33% in special ed, Pringle says. “It was a very transformational experience.”

In July, she started teaching eighth-grade English at Kipp Gaston College Prep.

“I wanted to get into a Kipp charter school because one of my goals is serving black and brown communities, teaching in a Title I school and showing that social justice is important.” 

��������Ƶ’s young alumni are making their mark on the world through their work in science and healthcare, finance and business, industry, entertainment and service to those in need. The Fall/Winter 2019 edition of ��������Ƶ’s Forward magazine featured 30 of these alumni, all under the age of 30. You can find all of their stories here on ��������Ƶ’s site (just look for the “30 Under 30” icon).