Posts

10 Ways to Use the Life After Birth book to Help Teen Moms
When I published my memoir, Life After Birth: A Memoir of Survival and Success as a Teenage Mother, my number one goal was to help teen moms.
I ultimately created a powerful, trauma-informed curriculum that promoted academic excellence and…

New Leadership Feels SO Good
You never know where your dreams can take you. In 2011, I started my speaking business, S.O. What! LLC, and the next year I founded the S.O What! Foundation. I had no idea how hard it would be to lead and grow both organizations simultaneously.…

Joann Massey S.O. What! Success Story
People don’t have to support you.
That was very apparent to me as a young mother and even more apparent when it really got tough raising a teenager.
But it also became painfully apparent when I became an entrepreneur.
Then, someone,…

Mayor Frank Scott S.O. What! Success Story
Have you ever met someone and immediately thought, “He (or she) is going to do something pretty amazing one day.”? Well, as a college student, I met Frank Scott who was also a college student.
But his poise and professionalism were different…

Do you know the FIRST black graduate of the University of Memphis? – Luther McClellan
Luther McClellan is a blessing to our younger generation!
Luther McClellan was one of the Memphis State Eight, who were the first African-American students admitted to Memphis State University in 1959.
He became the first African-American…

A Focus on the Future After a Year of Loss and Lessons
2020 represents a lot of loss for me, as it does for many others. It also represents a year where I was reminded of just how creative, flexible, compassionate, and resourceful I can be and how the lessons from my past can help me focus on the…

Becoming a Part of History- The Miriam DeCosta Sugarman Marker Dedication Ceremony
There are not many moments when you're invited to be a part of history.
Last Monday, I had the honor of speaking on the program for a major moment in University of Memphis history.
As part of the University of Memphis' initiatives to Eradicate…

What Makes a Successful Character Education Curriculum
I don’t think anyone sets out to do or create anything without the goal of success.
And that’s why it was my mission to create a successful character education curriculum. I had completely exposed myself and felt completely vulnerable…

Six Pillars of Character Education
In my post So What is Character Education, I began to explore character education.
A group of experts and educators came together in 1992 to develop the six pillars of character education. These six pillars of education were designed to help…