Season 7 Episode # 24 Jebeh Edmunds' Journey: From Educator to Cultural Competency Trailblazer

From classrooms to conference stages, Jebeh shares her personal and professional journey into cultural competency work. This inspiring conversation uncovers pivotal moments, lessons learned, and the “why” behind her mission to help schools and organizations embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion with confidence.

COME SAY Hey!!

Instagram: @cultrallyjebeh_

Facebook: @JebehCulturalConsulting

Pinterest: @Jebeh Cultural Consulting

LinkedIn: @Jebeh Cultural Consulting

Leave a Review on our Podcast! We value your feedback!

Follow our Blog

Enroll In Our Mini Courses
Buy My eBook: Empowering Your BIPOC Students

Enroll In My Digital Course: How To Be A Culturally Competent Leader

Buy My K-12 Lesson Plans

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Enjoy the Cultural Curriculum Chat podcast? Share the love! Refer a friend to Buzzsprout and both you and your friend will enjoy exclusive benefits. Click the link...

Transcript

0:37

Welcome back to the Cultural Curriculum Chat. I am your host, Jebba Edmonds, and today's episode is a little different. I am pulling back the curtain to share my own journey, my early days as an educator to the work I do now as a cultural competency consultant. An advocate. I started in education over 18 years ago, and first I was a paraprofessional at the African American Cultural Center and in our particular school district, um, we had the African American Cultural Center. We had the, indigenous cultural center, we had the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center and Latino and Latina cultural Center. And these centers were, uh, a part of a big initiative in our desegregation program in, our school district over 20 years ago. And they hired, each individual person that had that identity from that marginalized group to go into our district and teach. Culturally relevant activities, host, parent nights and family nights we did a whole multicultural fair where we had college students come in and, um, do dances and traditions and games and, we would go K through 12 and travel once a month. I would be at a different building. And I would be there all day, you know, having students come in and then we would bus students to our cultural centers. We'd be housed in various, elementary school buildings and, have kids learn how to cook, traditional foods. I really enjoyed that job, you know, to get, to share my cultural heritage of being Liberian and also. So, show all of those kids that, there is more to life than the stereotypes that we learned about Africa in the continent. And so that was something that I really, really enjoyed. I did that job for eight years and, I had the nudge of doing something more from my. A principal mentor that I worked with so near dear to my heart, shout out to you, Stephanie. She said, Chad, you are way overqualified by doing this. You've done way above and beyond what we've asked you to do for our district. She said, have you thought of going back to school to be become a classroom teacher? I can just see it in you. And I kind of, you know, poo-pooed it at first. And I said, no, my mom was. You know, as a first grade teacher and you know, I wanna be the next Oprah and this and that, and she goes, ah, I think you've got it. And you know, the first time I did go back. I was smitten, honey. I was like, yes. My parents are both educators. I knew it and my mom's like, I knew you'd be like me, you know? And I, my first job after going to grad school and got my master's of teaching, I became a first grade teacher and I loved it. You know, just to see the curiosity in the kids and, um. Going through that. And so I taught in a Title one school and, learning to work with community, but I also taught in Wow, five different buildings. I taught, first grade and then the last five years of my classroom, I taught fifth grade. And the blessing of that is I taught both of my sons fifth grade. I was my son Maxwell, my oldest, his social studies teacher, and then my youngest, I was his reading and um, English language arts teacher. So I got to see both of my sons. With their peers. I got to see them as learners. I got to go to all the field trips with them, and it was really cool to have that experience. So with that, you know, I got another nudge to start my own business. And it was during the pandemic where I met with, um, my business coach at the time. Shout out to you Angie, and she. Was a former teacher and she was amazing. I taught her sons and I remember telling her we had our sons, they played hockey together and, um, we were at a game and I was just looking at her and I knew what she did as a business coach, and I told her my, my hopes and dreams of having my own business. And I kind of tucked it away and then six years later I called her and I said, I'm ready. And she goes, I knew this day would come. And that to me was that aha moment of starting JPA cultural consulting and five years in. It's here. I'm living the dream and I created the podcast, you know, shortly after, and that'll be five years this fall, and, and created the YouTube channel, Mrs. Edmond's Cultural Corner. And I just love having this platform of sharing with you all, diversity, equity, inclusion strategies in your workplace and in your classroom. And. Interviewing amazing trailblazers in that space bipoc authors that can show their work to you, educator and you family member who could read this book and show your children and your community. How important to open our eyes and our scope to the world, and that realization continues to light that fire inside of me. And there came a moment, as an entrepreneur that there are so many ups and downs. I'm not gonna just sugarcoat how easy it is. It wasn't easy. I was of. Full-time classroom teacher when I started my business and this business started as a side hustle. So I was literally burning the candle at two ends and I was, teaching my class during the day. Correcting papers, filling out report cards and nights and weekends. I was recording my podcast and interviewing people and doing trainings on Zoom across the country, speaking, doing keynote speaking addresses, on the weekends in North Dakota and Chicago and all these places at these conferences. And it got to the point where. The demand of my business was so great, and I knew the impact that I had with all of my students, you know. It was amazing, but I needed to close that chapter to widen my influence and my scope to the world, and that did not, um, have me be sustainable of doing that for more years to my retirement of teaching during the day. And, conducting my business at night and I know so many awesome folks that do that. I tip my hat to you, but for my own values and being there for my family and being flexible with my schedule, that was something that I just could not, continue with. With this freedom of entrepreneurship to get up and, tour all the college campuses with my eldest son who's starting his senior year. I have that flexibility and the wherewithal and the freedom to do that, with my business. And that to me has been a great blessing that I don't take lightly. So from doing that of, being authentic and not performative, and developing cultural responsive lesson plans for my educators around the world by a licensed teacher who has these things. It is so important to keep that in mind. Whatever you find on my website, if you're a classroom teacher or homeschool teacher who wants to find something for their students that is not just jungles, and horrible racist stereotypes. I'm your girl. I've got lots of, ELA lesson plans and social studies, lesson plans. That is K through 12 focus that you can download right now and have it ready for your classroom. And I put my heart in this work. I, the books that I have used in my lesson plans, I've used in my classrooms and I tell you. All the times I've used these stories, my students just loved every minute of it. They loved the activities that I created to go alongside it. And even, um, in the professional sector too, all of my work that you can purchase for your organization is been tested with over 80 organizations. They have done those modules with me. They have been retained with me and. They're proven to show you that you can do this work that is actionable, sustainable, and easy to digest, and in a disarming way right there for you. So if you are ready to make cultural competency a lived practice and not just a policy statement, I'm your girl to help you, and I want you to visit jebba edmonds.com to. Download your hands on mini courses and full courses specifically for diversity, equity inclusion training. Albeit you are a nonprofit or a for for profit, or a classroom teacher or a school district, all of those are there for you and I can't wait for you to look and see. What is in store for you? So I will continue to do this work and this journey is not over. I have created my own first debut novel. A novella to be exact comes out October 16th of this year. It is titled The Orange Blossom. I want you to go to the website and hear all about it. It's in the book tab. It is a Liberian American. Novella. There's lots of twists and turns and secrecy, and our main character, Jovia, is a force to be reckoned with. So I can't wait for you to dive into this book and don't fret. You know, your podcast host girl will have an audio book coming up shortly afterwards, so I can't wait for you to get this book wherever books are sold on October 16th, and I am quickly working with my publishing company, HESI May. They signed me. We are getting this book birthed out into the universe this fall, so I can't wait for you to get your hands on this copy. So thank you again for letting me share my journey with you all today. And remember, let's build inclusive spaces because it's not just my work, it's our collective responsibility. Thank you all again. I'll see you here same time next week. Bye-bye.