Photo: Courtesy of Uncommon Schools

CHARACTER SKETCH

Titciana Barros '11

The Roxbury Prep High School principal discusses how she sets her students up for long-term success. 

When Roxbury Prep High School Principal Titciana Barros '11 stepped onto the court to receive a Heroes Among Us award from the Boston Celtics in December, her students in the TD Garden crowd went wild. “I don’t do it for the recognition,” said Barros, who’s an alumna of the charter middle school in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood and became principal of the associated high school last fall. “I wake up every morning and lead the school with our staff and students because someone else did it for me—I’m just paving the way for the next generation.” And it’s working: One hundred percent of last year’s graduating class took AP courses and 94 percent matriculated into four-year colleges.

SOLID FOUNDATION—My parents immigrated here from Cape Verde over forty years ago. They believed and instilled in us that education was the key to success. I ended up at Roxbury Prep for middle school. I loved the culture of learning, the culture of love and joy, and the high expectations. They knew my potential before I did. 

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE—All kids have the potential to literally change the world and be the best they can be, and if we let the things that are happening in society or our biases get in the way, it’s not going to set a kid up to be successful. 

REPRESENTATION MATTERS—Over 40 percent of our teachers are of color at the high school—and I’m not the only alum on staff. It’s important that when our students—who are almost exclusively students of color—look at their teachers, they see people who look like them and they can see their future and success in somebody else. ◽

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