{"id":19521,"date":"2018-03-21T18:04:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T23:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=19521"},"modified":"2019-02-18T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T19:28:10","slug":"young-black-and-tenured-taylor-curtis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2018\/03\/21\/young-black-and-tenured-taylor-curtis\/","title":{"rendered":"Young, Black, and Tenured: Taylor Curtis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0In a time when women are truly finding their strength and voice in a world of misogyny, I have the true privilege to write about a strong, proud and incredible young lady. She has just set a record not only in the world of academia but in the world of women fighting for their own independence and sense of self. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Taylor Michael Curtis is a professor of psychology, as well as African American psychology at Sinclair College. She\u2019s been teaching at Sinclair for the past five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0What makes her so unique isn\u2019t the fact that she tries to empower her community through the teachings of her students or her status as an accomplished scholar. It\u2019s not even the fact that she sings in a local band called Freakquency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0What makes Curtis stand out is the fact that she is one of the youngest African American females to be offered tenure from any collegiate institution in the nation. She is the youngest African American female to obtain this accomplishment at Sinclair.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0With this, she is joining the ranks of several other successful African American women in academics, such as Eve J. Higginbotham, Johnnetta B. Cole and Amanda Aiken, all leaders and pioneers in education. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \"DSC_0062\"\u00a0After being homeschooled from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade, Curtis started her academic career at Sinclair at the tender age of 13 and was one of the youngest graduates of Sinclair at age 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0She graduated from high school and college simultaneously and earned an associate degree in liberal arts with an emphasis in psychology.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Following this, she transferred to Ohio State University and graduated with a bachelor\u2019s degree at the age of 20. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Knowing she wanted to continue even further on her academic path, she returned to Sinclair to participate in their Grow Our Own program. The program was designed for minorities and other underprivileged academics who have a bachelor’s degree. They sign a three-year teaching commitment after completing their master\u2019s degree.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0The purpose of the program is to groom and grow a diverse arsenal of faculty to relate to the multicultural range of students that attend the college. After receiving her master\u2019s degree in psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Curtis continued on the path to becoming a tenured professor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0However, teaching isn\u2019t the only interest Curtis has, as she is active in the music scene and works in modeling when she isn\u2019t in the classroom. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Even though Curtis is a young professor, she has a clear idea and stance on what works in academia and what doesn\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Curtis knows what works in a classroom, and stresses the importance of communication, recognition and realization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0She believes that \u201copen communication initiatives that are inclusive to minorities and affect the disparities they face, such as completion gap programs, proper knowledge of resources, education for faculty of bias treatment toward students and microaggressions\u201d is the path towards connection between those within the entire campus, including staff, students, clubs and community.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0She loves the many events at Sinclair that celebrate student success and diversity such as pre-Kwanzaa, Kente Stoles and the international education dean\u2019s list ceremony. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\"DSC_0069\"However, she has witnessed what doesn\u2019t work in academics, and states that \u201cInequality and disparity in minority groups starting at preschool to the collegiate level\u201d is a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cCurrent public education doesn\u2019t seem to be preparing many for college, and on the collegiate level, institutions seem to stifle necessary conversations about important topics in society,\u201d Curtis said. \u201cWe need these conversations to promote global citizenship and impact change in the community.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Curtis feels that the fix to these problems is a simple but difficult one. She believes that a \u201csystematic change in the process of education starting with a better college relation with public and private schools when available that fosters dialogue about societal issues and attempts to make strides in helping all achieve academic success,\u201d is the key.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Curtis believes that the implementation of these changes will have a positive effect on the academic world at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cIf we can find the resolve to make these changes then I believe that we will be creating a truly incredible future not just for our students, but for the world and those who inhabit it,\u201d Curtis said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Curtis still strives to be the best educator possible by following up with her clinical doctorate degree to practice psychology. She will try to alleviate those with psychological stress and help them become their true better self, while inspiring the next generation of young African American females, so that they too can champion the cause of making the world a better place through education.<\/span><\/p>\n

Justin A. Baker<\/strong>
\nStaff Writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0In a time when women are truly finding their strength and voice in a world of misogyny, I have the true privilege to write about a strong, proud and incredible young lady. She has just set a record not only in the world of academia but in the world of women fighting for their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":19522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2102,3],"tags":[2528,2299,3015,14,3014],"class_list":["post-19521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-life","category-tartan-news","tag-bakers-beat","tag-justin-a-baker","tag-professor-spotlight","tag-sinclair","tag-taylor-curtis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/DSC_0047.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-54R","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19525,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521\/revisions\/19525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}