June 26, 2023 — Before Kiana Beamon started teaching, there weren’t any Black or Brown teachers in her school.
Now, she’s one of a few on her elementary campus outside Hartford, Connecticut, where she teaches third grade. At the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, a parent of one of Beamon’s student’s said she hoped her daughter would be assigned to Beamon’s class — and her daughter did, too.
Shortly before the end of the year, this student told Beamon that she now wanted to be a teacher because “she knew that she could because she saw me,” Beamon says.
“I’m not gonna lie, I almost started crying,” Beamon says. “It warmed my heart so much to be able to be that person for her.”
