Though Smith began her career as a teacher, she later left the classroom \u201cbecause I wanted to train teachers to be stronger.\u201d She has helped more than 30 young Black educators earn their teaching credentials through the Mary Jane Patterson scholarship<\/a>, which began in 2019 at CSULB. And she offers the training grounds to help them continue developing as educators, especially because only 2% of credential candidates at CSULB are Black, she said.<\/p>\n One piece of that work began in 2022 at Jefferson Middle School, where Smith helped build an afterschool program for both Black students and aspiring Black teachers. There, teachers in training developed lesson plans on Afrocentric history that students might not learn in their classrooms. Above all, it was a place for students to be themselves and interact with educators \u201cin a space of joy,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n In the program, Destiny Washington taught lessons on the history of Black men\u2019s hair and created a gallery walk of Kendrick Lamar lyrics. \u201cThey see themselves in the lessons they\u2019re learning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The space also allowed students to see themselves reflected in their teachers, which some research suggests<\/a> can change students\u2019 academic trajectories. Some data show<\/a> that when Black students have Black teachers, they are significantly more likely to graduate high school and enroll in college.<\/p>\n The after-school program also launched at Jordan High School, and there, Wayne Broadway tutored and taught high schoolers.<\/p>\n When Broadway was a kid, he had few trusted adults in his life, he said. But the teachers who did believe in him, he remembers to this day. \u201cIt motivated me personally,\u201d he said, adding that he tries to offer that to his students: giving them a place where \u201cthey feel safe and they feel seen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Another prong of Smith\u2019s program is to give Black educators a space to connect and learn from each other, what she calls a \u201ccommunity of practice.\u201d Once a month, Smith also holds a monthly meeting open to the community to \u201ctalk about everything related to being Black in education.\u201d<\/p>\n For Jameson, it\u2019s been validating of the isolation he has felt as one of few Black teachers and a place to discuss the challenges his students face. Through the community of practice, he has defined more clearly his role as a Black educator: \u201cto support students to reach their fullest potential,\u201d he said, but also to \u201cname the systems at play\u201d to avoid perpetuating systems of oppression that hurt Black students, he added.<\/p>\n Though the afterschool program has wound down at Jordan High School, Smith plans to continue the work throughout LBUSD. \u201cIt\u2019s a need in the district,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Already, she and her team of Black teachers in training have reached dozens of LBUSD students each year, she said. Their reach is due in part to their approach. Rather than focusing on academics alone, Smith emphasizes engaging activities about Black culture \u201cso that students have a sense of belonging, purpose, identity and pride,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Devon\u2019te Jameson began his career as a classroom aide at a middle school in Long Beach Unified,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-393799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/06-23-2026-teacher-6-274599-ks65smyj-142982-htBqrv3r-1024x737.jpg\")
Professor Jolan Smith of Cal State University Long Beach inside the education building on campus in Long Beach on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n