Jahki Manley’s Journey from AF Scholar to Dean of Students

Jahki Manley is passionate about his work at Achievement First. His journey with the network began as a fifth-grader in the founding class of Elm City College Prep and has continued into the early stages of his budding career in education. When he first came to AF, he was reading at a second-grade level, and the dedication of one of his teachers helped him catch up to fifth-grade expectations quite easily. “I had a few teachers who just went above and beyond. One teacher in particular, Miss Riley, used to take me to Barnes & Noble. She had me pick out the books over the weekend, and then I'd come back Monday when we had independent reading during the day. We all read for 20 minutes – the entire building – and I just was invested in the books that I picked out over the weekend,” he said of the support he received as a student. We interviewed Jahki to learn more about him, his journey, and his love for AF. When you think back on that teacher and how they motivated you, what does that feel like for you now, especially as you work with students and in school? I think about how sometimes you’ve got to get creative and think outside the box. There's no blueprint, really – we have all the structures in place, but it’s about what you can do as an adult and what you have in your toolbox. At that moment, I didn't have the best relationship with our teacher, but seeing her do those things for me—it’s Saturday, it’s a weekend, and you're picking me up and bringing me to Barnes & Noble—showed me that she was investing in me. AF always has this term of the piggy bank with the withdrawals and the deposits. And I look at it like that, right? You have to put into relationships to get something out. She knew she wanted me to be a great reader, so she really had to invest things into me so that way she knew she could reciprocate it. How do you think your experience at AF and AF’s values shaped you as an adult? I believe in showing up every day, trying my best, and respecting others. "Embrace Challenge" is an AF value that rings true to me, especially with COVID and how the school has been after that. And it's not easy, right? The work we do each and every day is not easy, but I have to remember that it's not about me. It's about the kids, and we have to keep them front and center. They can eventually go to college and accomplish whatever they want, but it starts with us. We really have to be here for them and guide them through. Tell me about how you came to work at AF. What was that journey like, or that transition, like from college to working here? So it's funny, the same teacher – I came back. I want to say it was spring break, and it was like my senior year with that same teacher and Mark Michelson, the founding principal at the time. They invited me back to Elm City College Prep, my former middle school, and I spent like a week there. It was like my break and I brought my green shirt in, my uniform, and I was talking to the kids. She pulled me aside and said, “look, I think you should consider working in education. I know you signed up for criminal justice, but I think you can really be a great asset to Achievement First.” So I applied, and at the time, the only available things were Hartford and Rhode Island. I heard about AF Summit Middle School at the time, and they had a pretty strong school. So I said, let me head over here to Hartford, where I’ve spent the last eight years. What is it like giving back to the community that gave to you? I think we were in a very good place prior to COVID and now, we know the issues that come with kids being out of school. So I'm really committed to getting the school back to a strong place. I think AF is also changing as a network. So, just understanding this is not the school that I once was a part of when I was a kid, and I have to be okay with that. When I went to school here, it was college prep, no-nonsense. Now, we have kids who are on different journeys, and we like meeting kids where they are and really being a community at the school. When you think about the future at AF, what does that look like for you, or what do you hope for that future for yourself? My dream is to one day be the principal at Elm City College Prep or Amistad High. I think I've spent a lot of years in Hartford just to develop my skills and work on myself, but overall, I would love to go back to New Haven and be a principal at one of those schools. I was in the Principal In Residence program in 2019 in my fourth year. And it was a really fast track and the closer I got to it, I really wanted to slow down, enjoy life, travel, all the things so I can prepare myself for that when the time comes.

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