Support Tanya's Educational Dream Post-Stroke

Hi, my name is Tanya and I am a stroke survivor living out her purpose. On May 26, 2023, I experienced a stroke while at work, in the middle of supporting my instructional team to prepare to receive training. Thankfully, I wasn’t alone, and I was able to be rushed to the hospital. After three or four days in the intensive care unit, I relearned how to walk, talk, chew, and swallow. While still in the hospital, after coming upstairs from a stress test, I received notification that I was terminated from the same place of employment where I experienced my stroke. This was devasting news considering that I loved my job, had built fond relationships with my colleagues, and was starting to see the fruits of my labor after devoting two years to my first job in a new state. Moreover, it was my sustenance after losing 60% of my pay, having transitioned to a new state to be by the side of my dying uncle/father figure, due to cancer.

Fast forward two months of occupational, speech, and physical therapy, I was functioning at 90%. My cognitive skills, namely my memory, directionality, ability to multi-task, ability to talk fluidly and teach for hours on end, were still very much impaired and noticeable to those who knew me very well. Three months later, I accepted a position as Assistant Principal. After building a strong rapport with the students, improving operational systems, and working towards academic improvement, 8 months later I was laid off, with no explanation. Again, despite my long hours, devotion to students, and hours of strategic planning, my joy and my sustenance was pulled from underneath my feet. I felt frustrated and confused until I remembered my near-death experience.

While at the hospital, waiting for my discharge, I was thankful and devasted all at once. I was thankful for life, because I realized that had my stroke occurred on the weekend at home, my two teenage kids would have never discovered me until later on in the day since they wake up late. Had my kids still been in school, I would have been driving on a busy highway. If in my office, I probably would not have been found until 30 minutes after the event. I knew then that I was given a third chance at life, to use my childhood trauma and my accomplishments as a positive influence of hope, resilience, and determination to children and youth.

My passion for education stems from a difficult childhood, devoid of stability and familiar homeless nights, scouting the streets of the South Bronx, collecting cans and bottles for our next meal; parental drug addiction, arrests, and absenteeism; sibling parentification; domestic violence; and foster care. Thanks to the teachers, principals, guidance counselors, positive school environment, and a devoted uncle, I saw past the traumatic events I experienced and eventually excelled academically and professionally. My developed faith, a Christian college education, the helping hands of the selfless, compassionate church family, and the people I encountered along the way, contributed to the successful person I am today! Understanding the influential power of at least one adult, one caring school administrator, and one positive teacher, who saw in me, what my flustered mind could not… is the premise of my devotion to the field of education. For this reason, I’ve gone full force with developing my educational consulting business where I support students, schools, and small education start-ups and create a more direct impact. I am also working on opening my school, Teach Enrich Sunshine Promise Academy where I can ensure students across economic statuses receive an equitable, rigorous, character-based, loving school environment that believes in every student’s potential. As my current business evolves to support the funding of my future school, I need your financial support.

Teach Enrich Consulting Services is opening a testing center that will provide job opportunities and help fund the starting points of my school. After investing my savings towards purchasing the computers, desks, and rental space, we require a few more items to launch. The testing center needs desk chairs, plastic floor mats, the rental of a second office space with its designated portal, a Logitech camera that takes pictures, a signing pad, and reception chairs. A donation of any kind will go towards this endeavor and photos will be provided to show the completion of this project. I will continue to do for our children, what others have done for me.