Kejohna's Story

Kejohna Hammond

“Without education, you can't progress in our society. It’s consistently keeping them in a circle of being three steps behind.”

Before Kejohna Hammond joined the Petey Greene Program, she never thought of herself as a teacher. Now, she’s left her hometown of Philadelphia for Greater Boston, where she works as a lead fifth grade English teacher for Teach for America. Kejohna says that wouldn’t have happened without her experience volunteering with the Petey Greene Program.

Kejohna first entertained the idea of going into teaching during a PGP tutoring session. She was primarily focused on continuing with criminal justice work after graduating in May 2020. However, a woman she was tutoring strongly suggested she consider going back to school to major in education.

Kejohna says that her passion at the intersection of education and criminal justice was just one of the many things she learned tutoring with the Petey Greene Program.

She often thinks about the lack of support her incarcerated family members have in prison. While teaching her fifth graders, she reflects on how Black and Hispanic families are stereotyped in their books, with absentee fathers, drug-addicted parents, and crime permeating their lives.

“I could see pieces of my mom, of my aunt in the women I tutored,” Kejohna says. “I have family who are currently incarcerated, and they have no supports. It breaks my heart to know that. My family members are stuck in this, and there are so many holes that I want to fix. Education is a human right, just like housing, health care, and food."