Make Friendship Better Again

Story and Photo by Nikyia Rogers

Knights’ new leadership has arrived and she’s ready to lead us into a new lifestyle and path for success. FNN had the opportunity to meet and get to know her. In the principal’s office, I got to interview her and get more information on who she is.

It was interesting to see a new leader take taking over as the interim principal. Her name is Mary Dunnock and she is an African-American woman. She has previously worked at other Friendship Public Charter Schools and has also worked at Edison Learning.  She worked at Edison for about 11 years in many different positions.

Mary Dunnock has recently held town hall meetings with each of the Five Friendship Collegiate Academies. In those town hall meetings she introduced her reasoning for being here and the “CALL TO ACTION” plan she has for us. Her “Call to Action Plan” was about getting the students to be more involved in school and give them harder work to push them beyond their limits and expand their knowledge. She answered questions from students pertaining to the school and how she plans to “Make Friendship Better Again”.  She repeatedly said to the students that, “We plan to not only take students to college, but also put them through it.” I felt as if she genuinely cared about the students and getting them to a higher level in life beyond school.

Students have said that she is far from anything like Mr. Jordan and that it will take some getting used to her. Recently there was a trending topic on Twitter with #bringjordonback #makefriendshipbetteragain and #FriendshipCollegiate. Some students really do miss Mr. Jordan, but other students are glad to not have him here anymore. At the end of the day, Ms. Dunnock is here to serve her time as our interim principal and do all she can to make Collegiate a great school.  

Nikyia Rogers is a sophomore at Friendship Collegiate Academy.