Grades Served 5-8
Founded 2009
Students 399
Teachers 31
Founded in 2009, KIPP STRIVE Academy was the third KIPP Metro Atlanta school to open. KIPP STRIVE Academy connects Atlanta’s Historic West End and Westview neighborhoods and seeks to build on the enduring legacy of education and activism in the community. STRIVE stands for Success Through Rigorous Instruction, Virtue, and Enrichment – a vision shared by students and staff alike. Holding fast to the belief that education comprises both academics and character, KIPP STRIVE is grounded in its REACH values (Respect, Enthusiasm, Achievement, Citizenship, and Hard Work). The school’s commitment to world-class instruction raises academic expectations to a higher level of teaching and learning. The belief in a calm and positive environment lays the foundation for relationships that empower with love and joy, grant mutual respect and dignity, and instill trust that extends for a lifetime. Students are further enriched through the arts, sojourns to landmarks of the civil rights movement across the South, and literacy initiatives that lift their voices and elevate their stories. KIPP STRIVE Academy proves that all students can thrive beyond measure as change-agents for a better tomorrow.
KIPP STRIVE Academy shares a campus with KIPP STRIVE Primary School (grades K-4), offering a full K-8 academic experience.
Charmaine Lau serves as the principal of KIPP STRIVE Academy. She began her teaching career as a Teach For America corps member in the Mississippi Delta before joining KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools in 2008. During her ten years at KIPP South Fulton Academy, she taught fifth-grade science and was awarded Teacher of the Year as an eighth-grade math teacher. She also served as grade level chair, department chair, lower and upper school assistant principal, and director of operations. For the next three years, she served as an assistant principal at KIPP Atlanta Collegiate High School. Last year, she worked on the KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools Support Team as the High School Achievement Director. Charmaine received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Georgia and her Master of Education in Administration and Supervision from National-Louis University.
At KIPP STRIVE Academy, we offer the following extracurricular activities:
Our students’ academic results continue to prove what is possible in education.