Nov. 25, 2025 – For Team Duval graduate Takeyah Austin, being a City Year corps member carries deep significance. She’s not only serving students at Rutledge Pearson Elementary School; she’s also giving back to a program that deeply impacted her.
“Coming to school made me feel happy, and I could see that my teachers cared about me,” she recalled, wiping tears from her eyes. “City Year gave me motivation to continue my schooling.”
As a student at George Washington Carver Elementary School and Ribault Middle School, Austin said she received much-needed support from the national service program. Today, she’s one of nine corps members serving the Rutledge Pearson community and one of 70 serving nine schools districtwide.
“In my two years (at Pearson), I learned that I actually want to pursue a career in education,” she said.
City Year officially began serving Team Duval schools in 2013 with the goal of providing support in high-need communities. The program is known for its all-around school support, beginning with a beloved morning tradition known as the “power greeting,” where corps members welcome students, staff, and families at the front door with clapping, singing, and dancing.
“You might have had a really rough morning. But then, when you walk into the building and you have the power greeting happening, how can you not be happy?” remarked Rutledge Pearson Principal Katie Adkins. “How can you not want to be part of this school community each and every day?”
Inside the school, corps members assist teachers and staff with everything from tutoring students to leading small groups and supporting attendance efforts. But beyond academic and behavioral support, Adkins said City Year provides something equally essential: relationship-building.
“Everybody, when they come to school, deserves to have a caring human being who can motivate, inspire, and maybe even guide,” she said. “Everything starts with relationships.”
It’s a concept Austin knows well and hopes to provide to the students she serves day in and day out.
“When I think about City Year, I think about community,” she said. “I want to be a teacher that somebody can come to and talk about whatever they want to talk about — and help them.”