Meet Zuwena Omari Muhammad

We recently connected with Zuwena Omari Muhammad and have shared our conversation below.

Zuwena, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience, I believe, comes from my mother, grandmothers and aunts. As a child, these were the women I watched make miracles happen for our family, despite their own personal setbacks and struggles. They set the precedence in my mind of what getting back up after a knockdown really looks like

I use the examples of their fortitude and strength today to help get me through my toughest challenges. My mother, in particular, was constantly reinventing herself and rededicating herself to the things she felt were important to her and her family. I try to invoke that same spirit. Whenever I fail at something, am told no, have a setback towards a goal. I think of my mother, my grandmother, my aunts, and it gives me an enormous amount of strength, to shake off the bumps and bruises and try again at whatever I’m working towards.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am the owner/operator of Lifted Hands/Akili Academy. Lifted Hands is a K-12 school specializing in one-on-one instruction to help students achieve concept mastery.
Starting my career in the private school sector, I have been teaching for over twenty five years. In 2009, I left the classroom to homeschool my then, three children. As word spread of my homeschooling efforts, Lifted Hands grew out of a need for quality education, in a safe and loving environment. Today, I have seven beautiful children, all whom I have or am currently educating, in addition to the dozens of families who have come through the doors of our school. We transformed our small homeschool into a successful, educational institution, open to those looking for an alternative to mainstream schooling options in our community.

There are so many things that set this school apart from not only traditional public education but other private school models as well. We have had great success with the “one room schoolhouse” model, for example. All of our students are instructed together. Groups are separated based on age and grade level, but students share space with one another and every student has exposure to the curriculum of their fellow classmates. Younger students get the benefit of having older students to look up to, aspire to, and assist them when necessary. Older students get the honored task of being examples for their younger counterparts. In addition, being consistently exposed to primary curriculum has shown to help strengthen those concepts for our upper elementary and middle school students.

Our curriculum blends traditional learning models with a relaxed, individualized homeschool model for a truly unique educational experience. Students enjoy the peaceful, family-oriented environment of a small, non traditional classroom setting, allowing them to thrive both socially and academically. Students are able to advance at their own pace, allowing for optimal mastery of core concepts. Our curriculum is designed to keep students engaged and encouraged by focusing on their individual learning styles and interests, something that is impossible to do in larger, more traditional school settings. Students starting our program in kindergarten can expect to work at least one grade above average and are set on track to graduate high school by age 17. Our average high school graduation age is 16 years old.

In addition to our school year program, Lifted Hands also provides a fun and safe learning program during the summer. Lifted Hands Summer S.T.E.A.M. provides hands on learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering art and mathematics, for five weeks in June and July. In addition to learning exciting, scientific concepts, performing fun, hands-on experiments and getting a head start on the school year, students are engaged in fun field trips each week, including swimming at the local pools, waterslides and local entertainment attractions.

Lifted Hands/Akili Academy and Lifted Hands Summer S.T.E.A.M. are small programs that provide the perfect space for personalized learning. Whether a child is accelerated or needs remediation, every student gets a program tailored to their needs and no student is pushed ahead without having mastered their current working level. Students who show mastery are encouraged to work ahead and advance regardless of age.

I believe strongly in the concept of quality over quantity when it comes to education. I do my best to ensure all of my students have a quality learning experience that includes rigorous academic material as well as real life lessons that they can use wherever they go.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Any parent, teacher, or child care provider will admit that patience is an absolute necessity when dealing with children. However, it is also necessary to be patient with the process of being an educator and finding your groove in the classroom, with your students and your material. I have found that taking time, stepping back when things get overwhelming and being patient with myself, my learning process and my flaws, allows me to be more patient and empathetic towards my students.

Creativity is an extremely important quality that makes this particular method of education possible. Meshing traditional curriculum with non traditional teaching methods, creating lessons that are effective across multiple grade levels, problem solving when a lesson flops and working with students of varying learning styles and abilities at the same time, requires an immense amount of creative energy. I am consistantely tasked with finding ways to make tough lessons, fun, engaging, memorable and most of all, impactful enough to help ensure retention of the material.

Finally, at the risk of sounding cliche, having a genuine love for my students is the number one, most important quality I believe I possess. Teaching, in any capacity, is so much more than a job or even a career choice. I believe good teachers are called to do it because of the love they have for those they teach and the lessons they impart. Love is the fueling force behind the creativity, patience, resilience and success of any teacher worth their weight in the classroom. I truly love all of the students that I have had the pleasure to work with. I have stayed in touch with many of them through college, careers and their own families. I considered them all my babies, and their families become my family.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing my parents did for me was homeschool my younger siblings and I. My mother was my primary teacher until I entered 9th grade, and my father fully encouraged this. She did this at a time when homeschooling was widely misunderstood, unpopular, and lacked resources, often going unrecognized as a legitimate form of education by most standards.
However, my parents both had a vision and goals for the education of their children and my mother knew that in order for her goals to come into fruition, she would have to make it happen herself. She wrote her own curriculum, sourced her own books and supplies and made sure we were well rounded in the arts and had extracurricular activities for plenty of social development. She was my first example of what it looks like to be unafraid and unapologetic when living in my purpose. Through the example of her tireless efforts to educate her own, I have had the courage to educate mine. I have been able to take what she gave me and multiply it in a way that allows me to give back to my children, and my community.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liftedhandshomeschool/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Lifted-HandsAkili-Academy-100064037737084/