Edupreneur Spotlight: Nkoyo-Ene Effiong

 
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Check out our interview with Nkoyo-Ene Effiong, the Principal Attorney, The Effiong Firm in Atlanta, GA.

How and why did you become an educator? Narrate your path for us.

I came to education on an alternate path. A large education non-profit was recruiting on my campus, and a friend and mentor of mine convinced me to apply. I wanted to get into politics with education as my main platform. My mentor explained to me that too many politicians were making decisions about what should happen in classrooms without any recent experience in a classroom. I wanted to be of service, but I didn’t want to advocate for education issues without experiencing what it is like to be inside a classroom as an educator. I applied to Teach For America, got in, moved to my first choice of Atlanta and began teaching. Talk about culture shock!

Without a doubt, my students taught me far more than I taught them. I say that to say they impacted me greatly. Teaching was my first time in a public school ever. I was privileged to attend private schools my entire life. It was eye opening to see how our public education system was really working. Sadly, my school was hit with a scandal in my second year. Our book-keeper embezzled $30k from the school. As a Title I school, that greatly impacted our most necessary programs and they were taken away. For example, we had to cut after school activities, academic support, and family engagement nights. I was so heartbroken. After that year, I left the classroom to work on staff with TFA coaching first- and second year teachers in two Georgia districts. In retrospect, I think I left the classroom too soon, but I have learned a lot in the many education adjacent roles I have had since then. Coaching teachers broadened my perspective, and showed me how important it is for educational leaders to lead with excellence and integrity. Otherwise, teachers and students can’t thrive. 

I had two teachers at Thomasville Heights Elementary School at the time that I visited often. I would drive by this large marble building never knowing what it was. Eventually I realized it was a medium security prison right next to the school. This is what prompted me to go to law school. I applied to law school, got in, and learned that we have codified these problems into law. This is a modern day civil rights movement. We need to make sure people have the education, so they can be fully realized citizens. Otherwise, we are creating a permanent underclass. When we think about how we are going to reimagine an educational system we have to be very creative and be ready to use the master’s tool to disrupt and pull it together. In my time of growing up in Utah as the only black girl I never heard the message of prison as an option. We have to be very intentional about the messaging we give to kids.


What inspired you to start The Effiong Firm? 

I left TFA after realizing one of my assigned schools was zoned about a mile away from a medium-security prison. I supported two first-grade teachers at this school, and knew they had a common chant about wanting to go to college not prison. It always made me uncomfortable that six and seven year olds were provided these two very stark options. The day I realized that these children were basically growing up in the backyard of a medium-security prison, was the day I knew I was going to law school. 

Straight out of law school I worked at a big Atlanta law firm making 6 figures and was miserable. While I did a lot of pro bono work and won awards for it, my main work was not fulfilling and did not support the community or causes I cared about, because it wasn’t supporting the community. I switched firms and worked at a large firm representing school districts but quickly realized I wanted to support parents and students directly. 8 months before my wedding, I decided to bet on myself and hung my own shingle. I did not have a single client or really any idea what I was doing. Now I offer high-quality legal advice to parents, students and edupreneurs at predictable rates so they can protect and enforce their rights. In some ways, I am like a Robin Hood. I take all this access and privilege that comes with a legal education and make it accessible to communities that have been historically disenfranchised or taken advantage of by our legal system. 


What do you envision for The Effiong Firm in five years? 

In five years, I envision The Effiong Firm being the premiere holistic law and advocacy firm serving the Southeast Region. We have a large amount of black and brown bodies in these areas of the country. In five years, I aspire to lead a team of lawyers, counselors, and social workers working collaboratively to create education justice for students of color and their families. For us, education justice envisions a world where every school provides excellent education and every child is on a path to meet their true and fullest potential. It is my goal that our firm work alongside communities of color ensuring they are knowledgeable about their rights and have the capacity to protect those rights. I also have a number of clients where things get escalated to more severe charges quickly, so I want to make sure that parents are well informed and know how to support their children through these discipline processes that ultimately don’t serve them. At times I’ve found that a behavior may be a manifestation that was never handled properly. I want to create a comprehensive firm that sets a child up to be successful and that the laws and policies work in their favor. Our system isn’t set up to handle a difference and our laws support it and our parents need sound legal advice to tackle it. Laws have been put into place that are ridiculous and we need systems to hold these institutions accountable to doing what our tax dollars are paying for. I want to be that system for black boys and girls because their light can be dimmed.


If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about education immediately what would you fix.  

If I could fix one thing, it would be the way we normalize toxic and unjust behavior towards children of color. For example, I was in a discipline hearing for a student facing expulsion. The student bucked at the teacher and the teacher threw the student, who was about 70 lbs wet, on the ground. They brought a girl to testify and she described the teacher being aggressively close to the boy’s face. After she shared her account, I asked, “Do you think it was ok?”, and she said something to the effect that “well we see police do it to us all the time, so it’s ok for the teacher to do it”.  What’s troubling is that too many students are being indoctrinated into a second class lifestyle, because people are misusing their authority. The student, though physically assaulted, got time served and the suspension was removed from his record, however the scars last much longer. Even when we don’t win in these hearings it's good for kids to see someone is rooting for them and GA progressive discipline. 

If I had a magic wand I’d want more restorative approaches to discipline. Wouldn’t it be better to have a conversation, before having a hearing? Shouldn’t our kids be taught to make amends? A lot of what we do in discipline that does allow you to restore yourself is after being punished, yet behavior is a form of communication. So we need to actively listen, be more proactive, and decrease recidivism, because schools shouldn't be macro examples of the prison system, yet the school to prison pipeline still thrives. 


What advice would you give to educators who have a passion & talent that could become profitable and want to act on it, but are fearful? 

I think a lot of times because we live in a society that tells us to play it safe our system is set up to make more employees and not employers. We follow directions generally, because asking too many questions can be seen as problematic. Add to that the layers of being black, a black body, a black woman, there’s a lot of compliance expected of us. Everyone wants us to be agreeable, docile, well-behaved. Those people don’t really make history.  My experience in big law taught me I’m not a robot. I can do more than pick out if this document needs to be flagged. I know how to learn and I can figure things out. I would encourage a lot of people in 2020 to bet on yourself. No one is going to trust you more than yourself. I really think we should all run our empire and own our time and talent. I encourage people to take the leap.


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