Students shared with me what their schooling was like before transitioning to AE. Many who shared a positive teacher experience had the same things in common.

They felt seen and welcomed by their teacher:

“He really understood me...he never told me to leave his class, never told me that I wasn’t welcomed for all the bad, bad things that I did.”

They had high expectations and believed in the potential of their students:

“She always made it clear to us that [our situation] didn’t define who we were...and that we weren’t going to be poor and stuff forever.”

Finally, they were given a sense of hope through these positive teacher relationships:

“And then I kind of realized that with him, you know, not everyone is gonna treat me horribly since that’s how I was brought up...I think I predicted that out when I started college (high school). And he, yeah, kind of made me realize that there are nice people out there...so we ended up building a good teacher student relationship.”

Zaretta Hammond points out below how feeling safe in the classroom is directly related to deep learning. This really connects to this last student quote, particularly regarding trauma:

“Students’ ability to navigate... the classroom directly affects their ability to stay in a state of relaxed alertness and engage in deep learning; otherwise, our most vulnerable students may succumb to stereotype threat, which kicks off a cascade of stress hormones and self-doubt" (Hammond, 2025, pg. 63).

Reading and listening to these transcripts honestly made me teary- eyed. As a teacher myself, the thought that one person can have such a positive impact by doing seemingly small gestures is so affirming and hopeful.