Booker T graduates return to teach high school

TULSA, Okla. – Booker T Washington High School’s first principal, Ellis Walker Woods, deliberately hired alumni to return and teach. That legacy is still relevant more than 100 years later. 2 News spoke with three current teachers who graduated from the prestigious high school.

Drama teacher Kaicee Mayo thrives on stage. 2 The news resonated with her on October 30, the day she taught students the ever-important curtain call.

“Just give them the opportunity to feel like a superstar,” says Kaicee Mayo.

It is on the same stage where she honed her love for acting.

“I came to Booker T and started doing musicals and plays here and got my first lead role here in this building, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Mayo said.

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She is one of dozens of employees who attended Booker T for high school and have made it a mission to return.

“They’re family,” Mayo said. “It’s community. It’s collaboration. I don’t feel like I’m coming to work. It feels like I’m coming home.”

That homecoming brings some familiar faces to Mayo, like computer science teacher Ramona Rogers, who was friends with her mother.

On October 30, Mrs. Rogers’ class was working on a new 3D printer. She says it’s a perfect example of computer science, a mix of creativity and discovery. These are two things she likes to encourage in her students.

“If they get those life lessons, they will be better suited when they leave these walls,” said Ramona Rogers.

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For Rogers, the past three years of teaching at her alma mater have been filled with gratitude. First, because of her ability to flow into her student’s lives and second, because she is a source of comfort and an open door, because she knows exactly how many of these students feel because she has once been in their shoes.

“You take pride in your school and your environment, but not just in the lives you touch and grow and become everything they should be,” Rogers says.

2 The news was in the library while Rogers and Mayo looked through old yearbooks. The Class of 2006 and 1988 were on full display. The teachers say things have come full circle as they reflect on the young minds they now help shape.

“I thought, hey, I was walking the halls just like you,” Mayo said. ‘I’ve been where you are. I took the same rigorous courses as you. “I had a hard time too, and I got through it, and you’ll be okay too.”

Librarian Willow Hoxie pulled out the memories and had plenty of her own. She is a proud member of the Booker T Washington class of 2012.

“I have enjoyed my time here at Booker T,” said Willow Hoxie. “I was very involved. I was a member of the T Connection band for four years.

Hoxie looked through her senior yearbook and smiled as she thought about the band. As she maintains the Booker T library collection and helps preserve the school’s history, she is grateful that her years at Booker T are part of that legacy.

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GALLERY: Booker T graduates return to teach high school

“As returning alumni, I think it’s really important to talk not only about what I do here at school, but also about what I’ve done before and how it led me back here,” Hoxie said.

The road back to Booker T can take many different forms, but for these teachers, there’s no place they’d rather be.

“That’s what I love,” Mayo said. “We are all truly a community and family and that is the most important thing.”

Tulsa Public Schools says there are currently 28 Booker T graduates currently on the high school’s faculty and staff.

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