Hey everyone, welcome to Pippin, the podcast for women who've made intentional or unexpected changes in their life, yet they're still winning. I'm your host, Dr. Malika Turner, and I'm here today with Cynthia Shari Scott. Cynthia is the vice principal of Bucks County Technical High School.
Prior to that, she was a teacher in inner city, and then in 2011 transitioned to administration. So I'm here with Cynthia, so excited to have her here on Pippin to share her experience. But more importantly, I'm excited because she is an alum of IUP. And so I'm proud to have an alum here and knowing some of this story and seeing her grow and blossom, but she's going to tell her own story.
I am just glad that she's here to share her story with you. So, Cynthia, let's talk. Malika, thank you so much for having me. It is a pleasure and an honor to speak with you, to see you, and I'm just honored to be able to share my testimony and hopefully inspire some others.
You know, it's interesting. We were talking a little bit offline and a lot of times what people see is the finished product of our lives, right? So they see that we're in these, I call them high powered positions or position of authority and influence. And we make big decisions and impact the lives of the people around us.
But a lot of times what people don't know is what we experience, what the journey looked like to get to that place. And so I want you to just talk to us a little bit, Shari, about the journey. And who is Cynthia Shari prior to the device principle? So the journey is definitely a journey, a journey that has been faith-filled, that has been supported by family and friends and pretty much been guided by my own in order to never give up and to keep pushing.
Born and raised in North Philadelphia, grew up in a household with my grandparents and cousins and aunts and the typical black household. And unfortunately then I got pregnant as a teenager, very early teenage years. And so education even then was still a big factor in my life. I was always like an honor student and love school and everything about it.
So when that happened, I was pretty much devastated, kind of gave up a little bit and wasn't exactly sure what my future was going to look like. Once it was pretty much as just a stone that I was having to be. So the first thing for me was forgiveness. For giving myself for a mistake, being young and not really knowing.
I feel like my waist is cracking a little bit. I shared my story personally but not really publicly. So again, it started with forgiveness. I was ashamed, I was depressed.
I felt like I let my family down. But at some point, like I said, the pivot happens. I had to decide, okay, what am I going to do now? So again, the first thing was to forgive myself and to just figure it out.
Like, okay, this is happening, so what are you going to do? So for me, it was I'm going to continue to work just as hard with schooling so that I can get where I need to be. And I felt like education pretty much saved me. And so it's always been a passion of mine to share and be a testimony as to how far education can take you.
So from being a teenager, being a team mom, finishing high school. Still graduated with honors, still graduated 30 my class. The next step for me was going to college. I never felt like I couldn't do it once I decided that it was going to still happen.
I made some connections through being in the Philadelphia Partnership Program and chose IUP. So my next part of my journey took me to IUP and I was blessed and fortunate enough to be able to take my son with me. And that was a hard decision and not a familiar decision. But I didn't want to lose a connection with my son, you know, and be going for the next four years in and out and not continue to develop our relationship.
So I made the choice to take him with me. And IUP was everything to me. I made some great relationships. I was able to fetch Delta Sigma Theta.
I had some great swords in there in my family. And I met some lifelong friends there. And I went through college with my son. He became the campus son.
Everybody knew to rhyme. And I was still able to make the grades. I mean, I made the things list a couple times at 4.0, Aaron Air, you know, aside from being a mom on campus, I still was able to, you know, focus on my studies and enjoy some of the fun parts of college. And I stayed there and I got my first message degree as well at IUP.
So can I just stop you really quickly? There's so much good stuff there. Let me go back for a second. Number one, there was a level of forgiveness that needed to take place.
You know, when you found out you were pregnant and you knew that you had goals and you had dreams. This wasn't going to stop you, but there was an emotional piece that needed to be addressed. And you forgave yourself. And then you had to make a decision as to what you were going to do.
And then I love what you said. You said something. Education saved you. Education, the connection that you have with education, the desire for it.
It seemed like it was the very thing that kept you focused on the goal. That kind of kept you in. I don't know. Let me see.
You know how we are when we have bumping cars, right? And you have those tires on the side that keep you in your path or in the direction that you're supposed to go. And it seemed like education. You said that I pictured education being like that for you.
It sort of kept you in moving in the direction that you desire to go. It definitely did. It definitely did. And you know, the support of my family because again, I was that kid that everybody thought she was a smart one.
She wanted to go far. So, you know, they kept pushing me. They kept supporting me. You know, they didn't get bump on me.
And, you know, and I can never, you know, mention enough my faith, my faith in God and just, you know, the belief that, you know, I'm a survivor and with him by my side, I didn't do anything. So, my faith kept me grounded just as well as my passion for education and, you know, wanting to learn as much as I could to then impart that and share that in the future students that I would, you know, be responsible for. Did you run into, did you run into folks who said stay home, stay here, you're fine. You can do it here.
You know, who takes their baby to school. Did you run into that as well? Definitely. There was a lot of people, you know, close and just from looking from the outside and like, you know, she, she, she, she, she, she just like everybody else and she's not going to make it out and look at her, you know, so it definitely was all around.
And I, and you know, my grandparents even offered to keep my son at home while I was just, ooh, I mean, that's how much support I had. But for me, it was just wanting to, you know, take this journey with my son because he's, you know, with such a great part of it and keeping me motivated and encouraged so that he can actually see it and, you know, experience it with me. So it didn't take much for me to decide to take it with me and to not even giving to the naysayers and, you know, those who doubted me because there were so many other people that were cheering for me and was supporting me and pushing me to, you know, to continue on to my path. So, and that's exactly what I did.
And I went from a supportive community at home to a supportive community at IP. Well, you know, it's interesting because I think that what you do is you had a passion for education and then you set your son in an environment that, that we're surrounded by education. You know what I mean? Even it's a college campus, but you know what it's like when you're in that environment so different than being at home.
You're around buildings and educated and the spirit of education and learning and connecting. It's all there, right? So you're planning that in him as well. Right.
And it was about exposing him to a different environment just as much as the West for myself. You know, again, like I said, I was born in the heart of North Philadelphia and raised, you know, in North Philly. And, you know, we can go on and on about the different neighborhoods and the different conditions, you know, but I also wanted him to be able to experience a different environment, you know, see trees, see, you know, see deers and, you know, all the different things that, you know, transition from Philadelphia to IUP has to offer. So it was very important for me to take in with me.
And like I said, I knew it didn't make it any easier for me. And I knew it was one of the challenges, but between my faith and just my focus, it was just going to happen. You know, and I knew that God would bless me to put people in my life to support me. So, you know, it's just, again, we all know the journey.
It can be hard, but it's about never giving up. And even when I got discouraged, I just went deep and I would look at him and be like, you know what, we got this, you know, we're going to do this. And we did, you know. Right.
You got two degrees. Yeah. And have saved out another, you know, to prepare for my principal's. Through Cal U, I'm a big fan of the, you know, the sister school, the state system, higher education.
So I got my second master's from Cal U. A couple, you know, some years later, once I decided that it was time for me to transition from the classroom to leadership. So let's go. I want to start.
Go ahead. No, go ahead. That's a good place because I want to transition now because so you made a decision. You took your son to school with you.
You graduated two degrees, bachelor's and a master's degree. Talk about that pivot into education into teaching. How did you get from A to B? So it's one of those things where like, I knew since the fifth grade, I wanted to be a teacher because you know, you had that one dynamic teacher and I'll never figure her.
She was a girl who was such an inspiration. I mean, she was a black woman. She was sharp. She would come to school every day and you know, no nonsense, no excuses.
And she was the first person to tell me to not let your circumstance determine your outcome. And I never forgot that. And so even though my studies and I, you know, people say for technology and then education and training, that sense of education is always there. So at first I'm thinking, okay, I think I want to train adults, like go into adult education and you know, with the different software programs and all of that.
But then it then kept nagging and be like, no, I think you want to be in a classroom. I was a student, remember? So as soon as I started putting my resume, I would let me write into the classroom. So and I was able to teach what I went to school for.
I was training students on how to become Microsoft certified, how to put together most of my media presentations. And I was able to start my career like in North Philadelphia, not too far from my home, teaching students from grades nine to 12. And that was even reporting to come back home and you know, be writing my own community. So it's like I always knew the in game for me with a CEO or superintendent of somebody's school district or whatever.
But for me, I do everything in the process. So it's like, what steps do I need to take to get there? And every assignment has prepared me for the next. So being in a classroom, I knew it was just a matter of time before it's like, okay, my reach is only these students, you know, that I see every day.
I can only be in control of my class. You know, I want to be able to embark, change and, you know, impart and, you know, be a day to day, you know, presence for students in general. So after being in a classroom from about 2004 to 2009, I stayed at the one school and then I transitioned to a school that was completely focused on technology and it was like a Bill Gates school and it was like a perfect school. It was a culturally affirming and African center.
It was like the joining job. So I went there and I was still a multimedia teacher from about 2009 to 2011. And then I started, you know, growing and putting my hands into different things and, you know, my mentors that I met in that school, the Annemarie Parker, you know, she gave me the opportunity to transition out of the classroom and to do some, you know, quasi-administrative leadership things. And so I took that one and from 2011, that's just been it.
And so I was like, okay, so now you need to go back to school and get this certification because, you know, the next thing that you want to be going into the apprenticeship. So it was like, okay, it's time for me to do that. So I enrolled, I accepted and that was the next thing. So I continued to work in that position, went to school and I certified and I still worked at the school until 2015, 16 school year.
And then I was welcome, my first opportunity as a, I was the assistant chief academic officer for another culturally affirming African center charter school. So I had the opportunity to work in some berry school and some great schools that were, you know, really centered and focused on building up our communities and, you know, instilling character and, you know, all the different things that I wanted to do to, you know, look at that little girl who looked at me and saw her and me, you know, saw herself and me to be able to do. And so that, you know, being in those two schools where like, they're rewarding because I was really able to connect and really able to grow and really start to get some more insight as to, you know, where I'm going, where I'm headed, you know, with this. What I like about your story is, and I think this is a message for so many of our listeners that there's a place for every one of us.
There's a purpose for every one of us. Despite what we do, there's still a purpose and a plan that God has for our lives, right? So to me, as I'm listening to you, there's a connection, even though you got the degree to work with adults, you got the technology, you just had to get the right clients or audience. And that was the children or the younger ones, right?
So, and I think that there's a connection there. And I think you, you can sense there's something still tugging at me. I definitely want to, you know, encourage people out there, like, you know, examine what you're doing, right? And if you know, you know, this is what I want to do.
This is what I want to be, examine what you're doing. Let's understand that there might be a connection with everything that you're doing, and it'll lead you to the purpose and the plan for your life. Because there seems like there's water, you know, because there's a sense of water here. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, there's water. And there's people that I think were strategically placed in your life to help direct you and kind of moving into those positions. You name two specific people who seem like they were very, very, very, very key place in the decisions that you made or encouraging you were giving you opportunity.
So, so how does that work for you? Do you have mentors? I definitely do. I go back to 1993 when I was a part of Philadelphia Futures in an ad program.
They set you up with a mentor and, you know, they kind of guys you and then they needed to them giving you like a book scholarship and you eventually go to school. And the funny thing, my mentor, who is like a mother now, she is still in my life. My children call her grandma. She was a coordinator and wasn't supposed to get a mentee.
She decided to delve into being a mentor and she selected me and she's a retired educator. She worked for the school district of Philadelphia, retired in the school district of Philadelphia. And she was the first mentor, you know, and again, she's a very instrumental part of my life. And then Danieli Parker, she's a soror as well.
She saw a little bit more of me, you know, I wanted and pretty much gave me an opportunity to step outside of the classroom and go into leadership. And we still are connected to this day as well. And I think having mentors, especially in the field that you're in, is very beneficial because these are older women who have just like me started in, you know, started teaching and worked their way up, you know, so leadership. So I often, you know, connect with them when I'm looking for advice.
You know, I mean, a different decision is that I don't face a lead to urban it to go into suburban it, you know, this 2018. And it was a big decision for me because I was comfortable, you know, I was in an environment that, you know, where everyone looked like me. Like I said, the in game for me requires me to be more well-rounded and be, you know, able to serve different communities and, you know, where it kind of takes you outside of your comfort zone. And so when I was blessed with this opportunity, you know, I had to leave one opportunity, you know, that I had, I wasn't in it long.
But again, when I think about the in game and I think about where I'm trying to get to, it's, you know, it's time for me to explain my resume and, you know, step outside of urban education and see how it's done in the suburbs, you know. And now, you know, for me, it's like, he just, I'm in his research at the time, where I'm learning and I'm taking it, you know, what to do with not to do. So that again, it makes me a little more well-rounded leader so that, you know, when it comes up, I've had the experience, I've done this, I've done it, I've worked with this community, I've served this type of student, you know, and it's not just, you know, you get in front of an interview panel, it's like, well, you only been in, you know, the inner city schools or, you know, what else have you got? You know, and I was trying to, you know, begin with the NMI and when I make decisions, I think about, you know, the outcome first and then what do I need to do to get there?
So again, this is just me still on the journey of growing as an educator and a leader in education so that wherever I end up, you know, I've had very experiences and I, you know, I've worked with different types of students and I've worked with different types of professionals from different backgrounds and to me, that all makes me a more well-rounded educational leader. The end game, I wrote down something here, so the end game requires you to come out of your comfort zone and that's paraphrasing what you said and looking at the, I'm sorry, not the why, but looking at the outcome, what do I want to accomplish? And I think a lot of times, even younger people look at what's in front of them, right? How does this benefit me right now?
And we tend to, it's like as we mature and as we grow, we tend to say, okay, that's good, but that's temporal, like I need to look at where I'm headed or how is this going to impact my children or how is this going to impact my life, this decision. So I love that you are sharing this idea of the importance of focusing on the end game because I don't think enough of us do. I'm a professor younger, younger folks, I think, a lot of times you look at what's happening right now. And so in looking at the end game, there's you strategize and you're intentional about your decisions and you're intentional about your connections.
And it sounds like you were very intentional about who you linked up with, who you listened to, who you took information from, to kind of help you get because you knew what you wanted to accomplish and where you wanted to be. Another thing that you talked about, I think is so important, especially for young career professionals, not to get so comfortable that we don't broaden our, I'll say resume, but our experience levels, our experience, what we're exposed to. I love the fact that you said, okay, if I want to get where I'm going, I'm going to have to go move from this kind of education, suburban education, urban education, suburban education. Now you're in administration.
I love that thinking because many times we get comfortable and we are afraid to move and you go back to your faith. And that is critical in our growth, especially as women, right? Not to be afraid to step out and broaden, come out of your comfort zone and broaden your exposure. So I, you know, I had to kind of do sort of a, just one of a mind women.
This is this woman, she talks to us here and she started out with her story of, started out a teen mom, forgave myself, which did something for you, right? Right. I forgave myself, applied to college, took my son with me. It was a struggle.
You're not here to tell folks that was easy. You know, and now you've, you've met some folks, you've connected with people, you've made some decisions, you went back to school, you got a master's degree. And now you are the vice principal of a high school. So what two things would you say to women out there who had a rough start and haven't been able to move forward?
What would you tell them? Like, I'm, I'm, I messed up and I, you know, and I have some dreams and I have some goals that everything around me just feels like I'm not going to be able to accomplish. What would you share with them? The first thing I would say is one forgive yourselves because we are hard on ourselves.
We are always pretty. And I think that when you get stuck in that place, I messed up, I messed up. And, you know, now you let your circumstances and your current and I do mean current situation just determine your outlook. And, you know, you have to forgive yourself so that you get moved on from that.
And then once you forgive yourself, you know, you, you, you, you did deep. You tap into your inner faith, your own, you know, your own faith and your own abilities. And, you know, hopefully you're faith in God. And, you know, you ask for guidance.
And, you know, you figured out, make a plan. See, some people think plans are overrated, but in my mind, you have to begin with the end of them. In mind, where do you see yourself? What is it that's trying to, it's trying to buy a house.
You have to plan for that. You got to look at your credit. You got to think about, you know, finding it. It's the steps you have to do to get there.
And it's the same thing. I mean, you have to forgive yourself. And then you have to make a plan. And then you have to stay on that plan.
And sometimes, you know, things get thrown at us to, to, to, to shift things. And, but as long as you're reflective and you keep going back to that plan and making sure that you're on the right path, am I, am I making the right decision now? Do I need to make a different decision? Do I need to make a shift?
You know, because all of those things happen. And it definitely wasn't easy for me. But again, it's about having a faith in believing yourself, having a goal and a vision for yourself, and doing whatever it takes to get there. There's some sacrifices that you need to make.
There's some, some, your personal prayer life needs to be on point. You know, you have to have people who support you and love you in the corner. And, you know, that's cheering you on. And, you know, no matter how he shakes, kind of you can do whatever.
You can go wherever. You can, you can make it happen. You know, we are, you know, our own barrier sometimes. We get in our own way.
You know, you just got to take yourself out of the way, 50 and go for it. And again, like I said, faith, family, and 42. And you just really have to believe in yourself and what it is that you want to accomplish. And then, you know, take your steps to get there.
Thank you so much, Olympia. Thank you so much for being here on the Pivot Podcast. Listen, Pivot family, I want you to replay this as many times as possible. Anytime does it, we'll sink in.
But not only that, share it, share this episode with friends and family who you know are going through, you know, are using where they're from and their mistakes as excuses as to why they can't move forward because we have a living testimony here, sharing that you can do it, you can make it, you can succeed, and you can be it, right? So, thank you, Olympia, again, for being here on the Pivot Podcast. Everyone, thank you so much for listening. And please have a great rest of your day.