Sarah Dean

Launching the first public charter school network to serve the incredibly vibrant and diverse South Nashville community, in 2010 our team set out to do what everyone told our Founder couldn’t be done: provide a rigorous, inquiry-based STEM education for Nashville’s structurally underrepresented subgroups, preparing each student, regardless of home language or immigration status, to graduate from college. Nearly a decade after our doors opened to our founding 5th grade class, we operate two fully built out high-performing schools serving the highest percentage of limited english proficiency students in our sector: STEM Prep Academy Middle School (grades 5-8) and STEM Prep High School (grades 9-12). In 2014, we expanded our impact to launch one of the largest newcomer programs in the country, the Nashville Newcomer Academy, serving new arrival immigrant and refugee students and their families from around the world. Today, our team is comprised of over 100 of the most tenacious, persistent, and mission-aligned teachers, leaders, and support staff working to secure the college-graduation mission for each and every one of our students and their families. We have the ACT scores and national growth data, the accolades and awards, the parent testimonials, the college scholarship funds, and the founding alumni, the college-graduating class of 2023, to prove that what we set out to do is in fact possible. We show up for our students and for each other every single day, motivated by the incredibly hard work it takes to give our students what they deserve (what everyone said couldn’t be done).