We recently connected with Portia Gray and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Portia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I always had a vision of having my own preschool once I lost my son. I wanted to provide a loving, nurturing, educating experience that embraced all abilities and skill levels. As I began my teaching career I was thrilled to bring in new ideas and approaches to the learning environment, but I was often hit with mandated ways of how things were to be done and my ideas weren’t embraced. I continued working in the public school system for 10 years when I finally decided to walk away and start my school, Gray Learning Approach STEAM School aka GLASS. Due to the lack of stem and arts, social emotional learning, community involvement, and etc. in the public school system I had to open GLASS because I wanted to fix this problem. Our youths creative minds were not being embraced or encouraged. They were being controlled like how it is in a prison system (which reminded me of why the say schools are a pipeline to prison) and I couldn’t continue to go along with the program anymore. We are failing our youth! I had to do something so I did & GLASS was opened in August of 2019. I would offer a different approach to learning and made sure to include that in the name of the school. The STEAM approach is what our curriculum is based off of. This educational approach brings real-life problems, community involvement, mental health and wellness, stem and arts all into one. We embrace the unique skills and talents our youth has to offer and incorporate them in our learning environments and lessons. We educate the whole child to the fullest!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Portia Gray, wife, mother, educator, and business owner. I’ve been an educator for over 20 years with a specialty in special education and leadership. Gray Learning Approach STEAM School offers a variety of stem and art classes for students ages 3-11 years of age. Our approach to learning involves solving real-life problems, project-based learning, student centered and community involvement. We pride ourselves in developing the unique skills and talents your child has inside of them.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe the outcomes produced by our students, word of mouth from parents, and the passion and dedication behind the mission and vision is what helped build our reputation in the market.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When COVID hit we had only been open for a few months. Immediately having to close down was not something we had planned for as a new school just opening up. I had to change the entire learning path we had worked so hard to implement. GLASS wasn’t a virtual type of school and not what we had in mind when we opened. I had to reconfigure everything we had planned to operate successfully. Online learning platforms had to be established and that was very difficult because we knew parents wouldn’t have all the materials needed to implement the activities we had planned. Although navigating through COVID was a headache we did make it through and able to open back up in person eventually.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.steamapproach.org
• Instagram: Www.instagram.com/steamapproach
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/steamapproach

Image Credits
Jayla Jackson