Educator Spotlight: Jason Morgan

Jason Morgan is an educator at Manuel Dominguez High School in Compton and a long-time collaborator with PLUS ME. We first met in 2011, when our Founder & Executive Director was on a mission to share his story with 10,000 students. Jason welcomed us into his classroom and the rest is history. Our team remains inspired by his unwavering commitment to young people and is all the better for this long-term connection. 

Here is his story: 

“I grew up in South Central LA and as a first-generation low-income youth, it was important for me to learn about money to counter generational poverty. So, when I was accepted to Stanford University I majored in Economics because we didn’t have a business major and economics was the closest thing. There I am on track to becoming an investment banker and suddenly this little heart of service popped up in me and said, ‘I cannot work in a field where I’m just helping rich folks get richer.’ Something within me just wouldn’t let me go down that path. 

But, I didn’t know another direction to go down. So I did a little bit of different types of work after graduating—helping a property management firm during tax season, background acting, as a pastoral assistant at my church, etc. My grandparents were like, ‘You got into Stanford. What are you doing?!’ One day, I was a seat filler for the ESPY Awards (while celebrities stepped out, I sat in their seats so the audience still looked full). One of my HS buddies, Ms. Reed, was also a seat filler that day and told me that she was a science teacher at Dominguez High School in Compton and they were looking for math and science teachers. She asked if I might be interested. 

I took a month to meditate and pray on it. In that time, I realized that I had always naturally gravitated towards helping younger people navigate life: in elementary school I used to read to kindergartners; I was a tutor to my friends in middle school and high school; I was an AVID tutor while at Stanford for the mentoring program at a local HS. I recognized that I have a natural desire to help young people navigate their path and so teaching made sense and I took the job. I was not prepared to be a teacher as I had no training—and considered myself to be terrible at it at first—but it put me in a position to really help students navigate life and I got involved with the AVID program. It takes middle performance first-generation, low-income students who need support in making sure they are college eligible and they get to and through college. That really hit my purpose of helping young people navigate their life. 

My first AVID class was graduating in 2011 and we were looking for guest speakers for their senior banquet. Richard was already here doing presentations and he reached out, wanting to share his story. His story stood out to me, especially the beat of his soccer coach saying ‘Andale’ (which Richard heard as “handle it”), and I was like, ‘Man, this is great.” We were invited again and again to speak at these senior banquets. 

As an AVID coordinator, I always wondered, how do we take the AVID experience to other students at Dominguez High School? Then, we participated in a PLUS ME storytelling workshop and invited students outside of AVID to join, including the Black Student Achievement group and data science students. Jordan and Morgan from PLUS ME came and were with us the entire day with multiple students from different audiences. We had a great time. The kids had time to connect with one another. There was one student who wasn’t doing well (always hanging out  in the hallway) who liked it so much she asked “When are we doing that again?” It reminded me that you never know what’s going on in a student’s head. There was something that was appealing to her about being able to connect and share stories. Probably because a lot of students don’t often get to share their story or even think about it. So, having an opportunity to do that can be therapeutic. Storytelling helps students be able to look at themselves and the assets they have: My story makes me an asset and I am an asset that I bring out into the world. It builds community within the room, it cultivates individual vulnerability and empowers students to feel brave enough to share their stories. The good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Later, I volunteered to share my story during Motivational March. I enjoyed going to speak at Manual Arts, because it is just down the street from where I grew up. You start saying these streets, you know, Normandie and MLK and they realize ‘You grew up where we grew up.” I didn’t go to school in my community, I was part of that bused out generation. Being bused or going to boarding school, you’re labeled “one of the good ones”. They pull them out and then you have to wrestle with different issues. I want to hear from those who stayed in the hood and are at the top of their game. I teach in Compton because I feel like you shouldn’t have to leave your community to get access to a great education.

I was there at the beginning of PLUS ME’s journey and have been able to see where it’s gone. I just love being a part of that and supporting the work that others do and then sharing that work with others because it is a sort of gift that you give out to the world in general, but it feels extra needed.