Jasmin Shaheed-Young
Jasmin Shaheed-Young founded RISE INDY on the belief that Indianapolis families should have real power in decisions about their schools. Her team trains community members to lead, prepares parents for careers in the classroom, and has advocated for policies delivering over $110 million to Indiana schools.
Jasmin Shaheed-Young is the Founder and CEO of RISE INDY, an education advocacy organization she built to put Indianapolis families at the center of decisions about their own schools. Inspired by her father’s fight for equity in the criminal justice system, she started RISE in 2020. The work runs on a simple theory: when the people closest to a school system have real power in it, the system gets better.
Circle City Leaders gives community members the history, the tools, and the network to step into real leadership in public education.
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40,841 students impacted
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82 alumni now serving on public and nonprofit boards or leading in public education
Freedom Readers teaches parents to build their own children’s reading skills, then opens a door for those same parents to become educators themselves.
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The fellowship is sixteen weeks, built with Marian University and the University of Florida Literacy Institute. Fellows work as instructional assistants while they train, and graduate ready to work in public schools.
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640 parents trained in the Science of Reading curriculum adopted by the State of Indiana
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90% of fellowship graduates are employed or continuing their education
“My father instilled in me at a young age a deep passion for service and activism. We owe it to our past leaders and future innovators to collaborate and address our present challenges.”