SOKEO ROS, a trauma-informed educator, artist and social justice advocate who recently served as director of Providence College’s Center at Moore Hall, was recently named executive director for Inspiring Minds. The Providence-based nonprofit serves more than 3,000 students with in-school tutoring, mentoring and teacher pathway placements, among other services.
How will your experience leading PC’s Center at Moore Hall be applied to leading Inspiring Minds? I have always been a person who has led with community voice and empowerment. I believe that the staff and community should have some autonomy over our programs, events and initiatives in support of their educational experience. I ran Moore Hall with the community in mind, especially the community that has been historically excluded and marginalized. I want to make sure that they can tell their story [of] who they are. These same skills will anchor my work at Inspiring Minds.
What are your goals for the organization? My main goal at this point is to listen, observe and create with the Inspiring Minds team. I want to get to know them beyond their job titles as to who they are as people and why they do this work. They have been amazingly supportive. My next goal would be to continue to rethink and recreate, with the team, what we are already offering and what else we can offer in response to the needs of the community that we serve. We want to make sure that we discover as much as we can, question all that we can and then create with others in mind.
You pledged to create a culture of care where relationship-building forms the foundation of programming and “where students have more opportunities to learn in a way that suits them.” How will you create that culture? We want to empower them to tell their stories while creating space for them to be their authentic selves. All of our work is embedded in culturally responsive, academic and social-emotional learning strategies critical to help them build the skills that are needed to be successful in their education and personal lives, and that starts with us. Relationship-building is one of our commitments, as we want, and need, to know our students and communities to work with them in a way that fits who they are and can support how they best learn.
What new programming do you hope to introduce? There are already some amazing programs that provide many volunteers an opportunity to tutor and mentor in Providence, send students to summer learning programs, provide workforce development and mentoring to aspiring BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] teachers, and teach mindfulness education across the state. As an artist, I am hoping to collaborate with some arts organizations and create some programs that will also benefit the students creatively and artistically. Infusing arts and creativity into our programming can help students learn, build relationships and improve their ability to understand themselves and others.
