Today we’d like to introduce you to LaQuisha Chester.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was never a person who knew since they were little that I wanted to be a teacher. I just remembered growing up I loved pens, journals, notebooks, markers, being creative, making things, always thinking outside the box and etc. I was always babysitting for others and I enjoyed that as well, but it still didn’t click that I wanted to be a teacher. When I went to the University of South Carolina, I majored in Accounting because I loved math and was great at it. After a year and a half, I didn’t like it. It was boring and I found no interest in it. After, talking to my mom about my feelings towards Accounting, she suggested I go into Early Childhood Education. She brought back my remembrance of the things that I enjoyed growing up such as babysitting, being organized, pens, being creative, and much more. After enrolling in Early Childhood Education, my life did a 180. I had found my true love and passion and it was all I could think and talk about.
After graduating from college, I worked with students from 3 years old to 2nd grade during my 12 years in education. I’ve worked in different environments, diversity of students, and with different learning methods and theologies. I learned from colleagues and mentors who guided me along the way but most importantly pushed me because they saw more in me than I saw in myself. Not only was I a teacher those 12 years, but I was also a reading coach for 4 years for grades K-5. I then got the experience of supporting and working alongside amazing teachers to work with their students in the area of reading.
I started tutoring in my 2nd year in education. When going into my 2nd year of teaching, I noticed that my students were behind according to the state standards. I then started holding free tutoring sessions daily after school to support the students in my classroom. Three years after that, I started tutoring on my own here and there. My business started to flourish a couple of years later by word of mouth. Parents were impressed and excited with their child’s progress and would share with others. This then births Inspired Learning and Above. My tutoring business means that we do extraordinary learning and above that to be and reach success in all that we do.
As of 2022, I have left the public school system to support my community and black and brown children to be successful in a system and world that has them set up for failure. Through all of my years and experiences in the public school system, it has taught me everything I needed to learn and know to help them to be successful and break down barriers.
Through it all, the two most rewarding businesses I am very proud of are Inspired Learning and Above and my newly founded nonprofit I Am Enough Girls Mentoring. My nonprofit is about helping black and brown girls to love and appreciate who they are, discussing what it means to be a black and brown girl in this world today, exposing them to different life experiences, and most importantly giving them space and place to feel comfortable to talk about feelings, stress, frustration, and life.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Anyone working in the public school system will tell you that there is nothing smooth about it. As I have mentioned, I have worked in different school environments, but the one that I mostly worked in was poverty, low-income schools, and areas. To go to work every day and see so much hope and success in each child is rough when working for a system that will allow you to only do some much or tell you what’s best for them when they never lived a day in their shoes. When you are their advocate and always have their back even when no one is listening or trying to change the standards and restraints we face daily in public education. When day after day, month after month, and year after year our concerns for our students fall on deaf ears and the challenges and obstacles get bigger and bigger. Through it all, I had to remain professional, but still stand up for my black and brown students with my voice whenever and whoever would listen, because I refused to stop until something changed. These are the challenges and obstacles we will continue to face until that change is made. I may have left the public school system to support my community on my own, but I will never stop fighting for our public school system to make the necessary changes needed for our black and brown children.
As you know, we’re big fans of Inspired Learning and Above and I Am Enough Girls Mentoring. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Inspired Learning and Above was birth from recognizing that my students needed more and were lacking the foundations they needed to be successful in reading and math. I then begin tutoring children to first build up their confidence in themselves to know that YES they can do anything they put their mind to. I would then support them with their reading, writing and/or math skills they need to successful at. I meet them where they are and then move them up from there. The key that we are missing in educating children is to meet them where they are in order to see success and push them forward. I am different from other tutoring businesses because I have a personal relationship with each child and their family. I don’t see or treat each child as a client, but they are family and we learn to trust, respect, and be real with each other in order for them to be successful. Once the relationship is built the barriers and limitations are off and true learning and growth begin. I also don’t just tutor the students, but I also support and educate parents on what their child needs and should be doing to help their child. I also find resources and events around the community for my student to participate in so that they are not just growing academically, but also exposing them to life experiences. I am most proud of the relationships and growth of each of my students that I am most proud for. Education is important, but we can’t eliminate social and emotional health and exposure for them as well to be successful.
I Am Enough Girls Mentoring (nonprofit) was birth from after building those relationships with my tutoring students, I realized that the girls needed a space to understand who they were as black and brown girls in this world and where they fit in. Also, after seeing the news talk about the black and brown girls running away, missing, and committing suicide. I knew something had to be done to stop this from happening to our girls and community. I meet with girls from 2nd to 8th grade. We discuss the real topics and issues of being a black and brown girl in our world today. They have a space to discuss their feelings, thoughts, frustrations, and struggles with life. I also expose them to different experiences such as health and wellness, etiquette, careers, trips, and much more. We have to grab our youth and young ladies before the world and social media tell them who they are, how they should think, what they should do, and what things are. I knew I could do this and more through my girls’ mentoring group program.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The biggest risk-taking I have done is to say goodbye to the public school system and step out on faith and trust God to lead and guide me through both of my businesses. It is so easy to be comfortable and content with a career and job because it’s consistent money, you have insurance and it’s “secure”. We are currently living in a time of inflation, why would I leave my career to take on full entrepreneurship with my businesses during this time? I’m doing it because it’s needed in our community and my community needs me but most of all I know God has my back and He will provide all my needs according to His riches and glory. As long as my trust is in God, money, inflation, insurance and etc is not an issue. He has it all planned out for me and all I have to do is walk in faith, hear His voice and obey.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: inspiredlearningandabove and iamenough_girls_mentoring
- Facebook: Inspired Learning and Above and I Am Enough Girls Mentoring
