Whitney Christenson says school was always a “safe place” where she found “a lot of my identity and support.”
Now she is a founding teacher at Leflore Legacy Academy, where she has many roles, including seventh grade math teacher, 21st Century Community Learning Center site coordinator and data coach.
Through her role as the site coordinator, Christenson helped run Leflore Legacy’s summer literacy program.
As data coach, her job is “to interpret our school data, whether it be surrounding academics or school culture or family communication, and support teachers in using that for best practice instruction and also to meet student needs,” she said.
Christenson grew up in the small town of Dayton, Oregon. After high school, she attended nearby Warner Pacific University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in education in 2015.
She has since gone on to earn a master’s degree in education and is pursuing a doctorate of education in curriculum and instruction at Delta State University.
Christenson said a major reason she chose to come to Leflore Legacy was the charter school’s “holistic approach to education.”
“It’s all about supporting students and getting them access to the resources that they need and want for their futures,” she said. “To find a school that had that drive, and also the drive to support educators and their physical and mental health — that’s what really appealed to me about the school.”
Christenson, who teaches on average 20 students at a time, said the limitations of virtual teaching presented a challenge during the pandemic.
“I think one of the most challenging aspects about virtual learning is meeting students where they are,” Christenson said. “Teaching reading online is not something that is easy to do.”
However, Christenson said that she believes many of her students grew throughout the process and showed a lot of tenacity.
Christenson also recently accepted a position as a fellow on the Teach Plus Policy Fellowship program. The goal of the program is to gather research on education but more importantly to meet with state legislators to create more equitable education for students, she said.
Christenson said it has been rewarding to see Leflore Legacy Academy students mature and slowly discover things about which they are passionate.
“Being the site coordinator of the summer literacy program, it was amazing to be at the showcase and see all the things that the kids had created, and the teachers just facilitated it,” Christenson said.
She said her career goal is to “help eradicate child exploitation and oppression through the field of education.”
- Contact Drew Richardson at 581-7233 or drichardson@gwcommonwealth.com
