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Meet Trailblazer Shalelia Janelle Dillard

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Shalelia Janelle Dillard.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
The SCD Enrichment Program was created as a result of my lived and professional experiences. As a child, I was ostracized and bullied for much of my schooling because of the misconception that “Black kids that are in AP classes think they are better, wanting to fit in with White students”. Attending college at Hampton University, confirmed that my story was not as rare as I thought. Many of my peers experienced the same tragic experiences with no guidance to navigate the world of accelerated classes where they were one of the few Black students in advanced coursework.

For most of my education, I was in Gifted and Talented, Honors, Advanced Placement, and concurrent enrollment classes. During this time, my family and I experienced situational homelessness from 9 years old until I went to college. One of the most important values that kept me going was our family’s emphasis on the importance of education. I found solitude in challenging myself academically and kept busy by being involved in a number of extracurricular activities. I wanted so badly to be able to connect with my peers in my classes to have another outlet from my home situation, but I soon came to realize that there wasn’t just a culture division, there were also socio-economic barriers as well.

After graduating college with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Spanish, I taught high school, preschool and middle school in Austin, Texas, and Denver. In my eleven years of teaching, I observed the lack of representation and services for students of color in accelerated coursework. As for my students of color that were enrolled in college-level coursework, their stories mirrored the echo of my past experiences. My son also experienced severe bullying due to not fitting the mold of the “stereotypical accomplished student”. My son became suicidal and his grades ultimately dropped. With the help of counseling, mentors and parental support, he was able to overcome these tragedies.

I have always had a deep interest in social issues. As a student excelling in academics, while being homeless through middle school and high school, I know my success was short of a miracle. At the age of 19, I had the vision to create a program for students from similar backgrounds to succeed despite their circumstances. The mere fact that I was able to receive skills to graduate from college was enough motivation for me to launch my program to help other students become successful.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The journey in starting my nonprofit has definitely been a rocky road. I have always had the vision of starting a nonprofit for students since I was nineteen, but I always struggled with whether I was worthy of creating something big and would say things like “you just need a little more experience”. The last year that I was a teacher in a small private school in Denver, I taught two class levels and ten different subjects. Although teaching was rewarding, I began to lose my voice in all of the lesson plans and assignments that needed grading. My fourteen-year-old dream began to surface every day and one day in April of 2018, I “brain dumped” ideas for my program and never looked back. I am thankful that my husband was a team player and supported our family financially as I walked away from my salary.

Some advice that I would give to someone creating a nonprofit is to find your tribe that will support you and guides you through your journey. There might be people that do not believe in your dream and that’s okay because you cannot teach your passion but you can replicate your mission.

Please tell us about SCD Enrichment Program – what should we know?
The SCD Enrichment Program is a school-based satellite program. We currently have partnerships with six schools throughout the Metro Denver which include (Hill Campus of Arts and Sciences, Northfield High School, George Washington High School, Morey Middle School, McGlone Academy, and Mackintosh Academy). We have also partnered with Canvas Credit Union to teach our students financial literacy. Our curriculum is composed of many ethnic academic books and resources that instill pride in our students’ culture(s) while preparing them for advanced coursework through higher-level concepts and learnings styles. We also have interns/mentors from Metropolitan State University and Community College of Denver that mentor and tutor our students. My favorite part about my position is that I get to teach students about their cultural history and prepare them for their future. SCDEP is the only nonprofit in Colorado that specializes in recruiting and supporting students of color in advanced coursework. The summer camp that we hosted this past summer was able to reach homeschool, Aurora Public School and Denver Public School students. Within the week of our camp, you could see a transformation of confidence and mindset in many of our students. One of our accomplishments was to be one of the 12 finalists for a Shark Tank-style pitch incubator called Fightback foundation. I am also fortunate to be a 2019 Fellow for the Moonshot edVenture program which cultivates future and present founders of schools and programs.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
One of the biggest barriers that I quickly realized was access to funders and funding to Black women. The national and local averages for being funded through philanthropy is significantly lower for Black women. When networking and navigating spaces that are predominately male-dominated, it is difficult to gain interest in nonprofits like mine that focus specifically on students of color. I have even heard of nonprofits changing their name to attract more funders. There seems to be an unwritten policy that the opportunity gap and race should not be involved with discussions about education. I find that it is truly difficult to be your authentic self that verbalizes these issues in order to appease people that are not comfortable about having discussions about race.

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