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| Elijah Watson |
A passion for teaching defines Elijah Watson, those who know him agree. The Charlotte Post Foundation Educator of the Year declares, “I’m in my groove now.”
Five days a week, Watson teaches at Ranson International Baccalaureate Middle School. “He’s the hope and heart of Ranson,” says Principal Tracey Pickard.
Weekday evenings and 24-7 on weekends, Watson leads the STARS Math and English Academy he founded. It provides academic enrichment, life skills training and mentoring to students in grades 3-12. Most are behind grade-level proficiency.
“We believe in rigorous instruction,” Watson says. “We teach a lot of transferable skills. Our kids know how to communicate, to write, to think and to problem-solve.” They also learn test-taking strategies for performance on End-of-Grade exams.
“All Elijah’s free time is spent doing education,” says Tawruss Sellars, a small business consultant, and a “do what needs to be done” guy for STARS. He’s helped Watson since 2001, shortly after the STARS non-profit opened in 2000. “Education is really his passion,” Sellars says of Watson. “He gets paid for it at work, then does it at STARS.”
Gerald Johnson, president of The Charlotte Post Foundation, says “Elijah Watson is dedicated to quality education for all young people. He researches teaching methods world-wide and uses any effective method necessary. He is a tremendous asset to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and to the community at large."
The Post Foundation will honor Watson at its “Best” Banquet on Saturday, October 4, at the center city Hilton.
STARS stands for Striving Together, Achieving Real Solutions. Its Ivy Baker Center hub operates on Saturdays. Watson also brings STARS teachers to remote sites.
Typically, STARS enrolls 200-250 students who study under 75 or so teachers Watson hand-picks for competency. Its End-of-Grade Boot Camp functions in after-school hours. Watson reckons 3,000 children have experienced STARS in its 25 years.
Two of them are twins Rafael and Vaughn Reed, sons of Jevelyn Bonner-Reed, executive director of the Belk Foundation. Bonner-Reed recognized her sons needed literacy help. She put her 3rd-graders in STARS. Now high school seniors, Rafael won a Levine Scholarship to UNC Charlotte and Vaughn has accepted a Chancellor’s Scholarship at North Carolina Central University.
So impressed was Bonner-Reed that she joined the STARS board. Familiar with the performance of many non-profits, she’s impressed with Watson’s STARS. “He makes the most out of the resources he has,” she says. “He serves as many kids as he possibly can. He’s really innovative about finding ways to support students.”
Watson is proud that STARS has never rejected a prospective student, and though the organization pays its teachers well, parents never see a bill. “Half of our kids are on free and reduced lunch,” Watson says. “Half of our parents are single moms.”
He remembers when Jay Everette of the Wells Fargo Foundation praised STARS but asked him to expand with added financial support from the bank. “He blessed us,” Watson says with moist eyes.
“He’ll tell you, ‘Don’t make me drop a tear’,” says Sellars, who’s witnessed Watson’s sincerity in funder meetings. “When somebody really believes, there might be a script but it just comes across differently. That’s what you see when he talks about STARS.”
STARS board chair Marcel McCrea calls Watson’s dedication “unparalleled and unending.” An attorney and partner at Phillips & McCrea, PLLC, he calls Watson incredible and an “all-around great guy.”
“What appealed to me was that the organization was geared toward levelling the playing field for Black and Brown students,” McCrea says. “When I learned the strength of STARS was helping children with test-taking skills and confidence to achieve well on exams, I was really interested in seeing how I could assist.”
For 16 years, Watson was an officer in Trust Operations for Wells Fargo and legacy banks. Along the way, he birthed STARS as an outgrowth of his volunteer teaching at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Carolinas. The bank outsourced his department in 2014 and Watson started substitute teaching. Soon it became his full-time profession.
“I think it was always my purpose to teach,” says the graduate of Morehouse College with a master’s from Strayer University. “I was managing teachers in my non-profit, but it’s different being in the classroom. I felt by being in the classroom, I’d be stronger as an educator and also as a non-profit executive.”
At Ranson IB Middle School, Watson is a National Board-Certified Career and Technical Education teacher. He was the school’s Teacher of the Year in 2021-22. Watson and wife Tissh have a daughter, Lauryn. They attend St. Paul Baptist Church.
Growing up in Chicago, Watson suffered a severe speech impediment. His mother and father valued education and placed him in remedial programs. “I was able to graduate (high school) as valedictorian and class president,” he says. “So I’m paying it forward.”
