TheGrio’s 100: Kittie Weston-Knauer, BMX racer conquers rocky scholastic terrain

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Kittie Weston-Knauer, one of the first competitive female BMX racers in the United States, is no stranger to overcoming adversity. After a bike injury left her paralyzed, Weston-Knauer was told that she would never walk again. But there was no stopping this woman – on the racing track or in her work as an educator.

Kittie Weston-Knauer is making history … by triumphing over scholastically rocky terrain. After rising from teacher to principal in her 33-year career at Des Moines’ Scavo Campus, Weston-Knauer saw her students facing their own course of obstacles – balancing schoolwork with employment, parenthood, and even involvement in gangs. She wanted to see her students cross their own scholastic finish line – college graduation.

As a lesson on the importance of persistence, Weston-Knauer informed students of her own setbacks; paralyzed after falling off her BMX bike 18 years ago, a sport she had picked up to connect with her son, Weston-Knauer fought to gain back control of her body and return to the competitive riding — and teaching — she loved.

Surrounded by BMX racing trophies in her Scavo principal’s office, Weston-Knauer showed students at the Des Moines high school that it’s possible to triumph over hardship — and now student-teachers of Drake University are learning the same. Weston-Knauer is currently an adjunct professor at her alma mater, supervising and lecturing the next generation of motivational teachers.

What’s next for Kittie?

Weston-Knauer hasn’t forgotten the public school system or its students. In 2009, her educational consulting firm, KWK Enterprise, Inc., was hired to develop a new charter school in the Des Moines Public School District, which will enroll 100 seventh — and eighth-graders in 2011 with additional grade levels added over the next four years.

What inspires Kittie?

I am inspired by educationally disadvantaged minority, immigrant and poor students who have lived their lives, often in disheartening circumstances and who, against all odds, with my support and that of other caring adults in the community, graduate from high school, meet success in their post secondary studies, and transition into adulthood with gainful employment, thus mitigating the effects of poverty,” Weston-Knauer told theGrio.”

In her own words …

“We are taking on student achievement and the achievement gap by changing the way staff think and teach. We are continuing to seek pedagogy that is effective for all students regardless of the content of study,” Weston-Knauer told the Principal Partnership website in 2004.

A little-known fact …

In addition to being one of the first women in the sport, Weston-Knauer is currently the oldest female competitive BMX rider in the nation.

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