As a teacher in an inner city turnaround school, APRO Education Foundation scholarship recipient Myaicia Womack strives to provide students with a tangible link between academic and real-world success. Womack is currently earning her master’s degree at the University of Tampa and is part of the school’s first group of Turnaround Leadership Program (TLP) students. A passionate believer in the importance of education in combating the vicious cycle of generational poverty, Womack provides leadership both through her classroom instruction and by serving as a link between her school and stakeholders in the local community.
“I have faced many obstacles and hardships on my journey to becoming a teacher and I want my students to look up to me as a model of hope and perseverance,” says Womack. Finding her life purpose in her work at turnaround schools, Womack knows that students in such programs require not just greater involvement and love from their teachers, but also the opportunity to experience things outside of their neighborhoods. As part of this effort Womack plans to use a portion of her APRO scholarship to have her students experience simulated skydiving and the relevance of math and science to that experience at the iFly Museum in Brandon, FL.
Her work with disadvantaged students has given Womack, whose mother works at Buddy’s Rent to Own, an intimate look at the opportunities provided by the RTO industry. Womack has worked extensively with families who would otherwise have no access to basic home furnishings such as beds and tables without the RTO industry. In addition, the RTO industry has made it possible for Womack to provide new opportunities for students at her school. This past year, Womack partnered with a local rent-to-own business to obtain enough desktop computers to create a computer lab at her school and provide a computer for the highest performing student at each grade level.
Womack is a member of the 2018 cohort receiving funding from the APRO Education Foundation’s Scholarship Fund. She is among a selection of 47 students given more than $110,000 worth from APRO and state rental dealer associations in Florida, Kansas, Missouri, and Tennessee. The APRO Education Foundation Scholarship Fund’s mission of helping futures leaders take ownership of their dreams is only possible thanks to the generosity of our donors. Thank you for your continued support, and we hope you will take a moment to support the next group of emerging leaders from our RTO-family by donating today.
