After graduating from Azusa Pacific University, Debbie Harris ’93 went into teaching and came across a new school called Hope Academy in Minneapolis whose goal is to bring a remarkable God-centered education to under-resourced communities. Harris found that her passion for making Christian education available to all children spanned further than just Hope Academy, and she has since found a way to support others seeking to start Christian schools for children in urban areas around the country through her work with the Spreading Hope Network.
Having gone through the public school system, Harris felt that she was at odds with her faith because it was always discounted or removed from her studies. When looking for colleges, she knew it was important to seek out a school that would allow her to live out her faith in a way that provided her with community and opportunities. Harris graduated from APU with a BA in Liberal Studies with an education concentration. She said that looking back on her time at APU, the university's authentic Christian community showed her what it looks like to work together in community for a common purpose and recognize that God is the reason and end of our work.
During her time at APU, Harris learned how important it is to incorporate faith into education. “Having the perspective of looking at things through faith wasn’t allowed in public school, but I feel that the whole purpose of education is to learn who God is, who we are, and how we are to live,” she said. When Harris looked into teaching at a faith based school, she came across Hope Academy, a brand new school on a mission to provide faith based education to under-resourced families at or below the poverty line in the city of Minneapolis.
She began teaching kindergarten at Hope Academy in 2000 and has since worked at the school teaching and in administration for 25 years. Hope Academy’s success was something that Harris had hoped for and worked toward, but she has been astounded by how far the school has come. Most Christian schools use a 90-10 model where 90 percent of funding comes from tuition and ten percent from donors. Hope Academy’s model is flipped, with 90 percent coming from donors. “I wasn’t sure what God was going to do with this school or if we would find people that would be willing to come alongside these children,” Harris said. “However, we started with 35 students and are now at 700 K-12 students. It has been an incredible journey watching so many people in this community be willing to help children have this kind of education.” Many partners of the school are average community members who partner with a child to help cover the cost of their tuition.
Every child is made in the image of God, and through my work at Hope Academy, I’ve learned to see the remarkable in every child and the impact we can have on each other.
In 2017, Hope Academy helped launch a separate affiliate organization called the Spreading Hope Network (SHN) with the goal of supporting others who want to start schools serving youth in urban areas around the country. In addition to her work with Hope Academy, Harris also began working for SHN. In her role as the Educational Coordinator, Harris coaches people who are in the process of opening new classical Christian urban schools. The organization has helped start 22 faith based schools around the country so far. “The most astonishing thing I’ve seen is how many people are willing to do something as challenging as starting a school, all to help children in their city receive a strong, God-centered education,” she said. “It’s no easy thing to start a school from the ground up where each child enrolled comes with a bill rather than a tuition check, but when people experience the beauty of this work they want to get involved. People are willing to trust that God will provide on this journey to equip children with a God-centered education that changes hearts and prepares students to be the next generation of leaders.
For her hard work and dedication, Harris was awarded the Russell Kirk Paideia Prize through the CIRCE Institute last summer. This award is given to extraordinary veteran educators who have spent their careers cultivating wisdom and virtue in their students. The CIRCE institute supports classical Christian education through training, online schooling, conferences, resources, and articles. Harris has been a speaker at their national and regional conferences for a number of years since her connection with the institute in 2006.
Harris’ time both at Hope Academy and as the Educational Coordinator for the Spreading Hope Network has been fulfilling, but her work isn’t done. Hope Academy plans to grow in enrollment until they reach 1200 students, and two SHN schools are currently preparing to open in Knoxville, Tennessee and Richfield, Minnesota with one having recently been opened in Washington D.C.