We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of performance in pursuit of success. We know that we must always hold the bar of expectations as high as possible and become comfortable struggling towards achieving our goals because we know that we “grow our brains” best when we are challenged.

We cultivate a culture of intellectual inquiry, personal growth, and achievement by celebrating scholarship and learning. Our scholars exemplify this value every day in our classrooms – they push themselves to engage deeply in work worthy of their attention. Our staff exemplifies this value through a commitment to continuous improvement – we are never satisfied resting on our laurels and working hard to learn and get better every day. At Essence Prep, there is no distinction made between the “nerds and the jocks” or the “cool kids and the smart kids.” Here, it is cool to be smart, and we invest intellectually in rigorous work because learning is exciting and rewarding.

We do whatever it takes in service of our mission. For our scholars, this means becoming true change agents in their community by embracing a spirit of selfless service. We see service as inherent to both scholarship and citizenship, and we commit to helping our community in and out of school. For Essence staff, our scholars are at the heart of everything we do, and we consider our work an act of service to our scholars, their families, our community, and ourselves. We do not engage in service for personal gain or external accolades; instead, we do so because serving others is the right thing to do.

We aim for high-quality and exemplary attention to detail in everything we do. From scholars’ schoolwork to school culture and behavior to staff lesson planning and beyond, we hold extremely high expectations of everyone at Essence Prep, including English learners, students with disabilities, and scholars at risk of academic failure. We see every task as an opportunity to demonstrate excellence, and we celebrate our own successes and those of others when we achieve lofty goals.