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It’s hard to know if, as a group, more Shaker grads are working for nonprofits, educational institutions, government or other civic-minded organizations than any other high school in the region. But it’s clear in hearing from them that their Shaker experience played a role in drawing them to the civic arena. Some are boomerangers, drawn back home by family but also by the attraction of Cleveland and Shaker Heights. Tania Menesse, economic development director of Shaker Heights, left home for the University of Virginia and then spent a dozen years in the telecommunications industry in thriving Western metropolises. Wherever she and her husband, artist and Shaker grad Rick Smith, moved, they looked, unsuccessfully, for a neighborhood that felt like Shaker. “I was pregnant with our second child and Rick felt it was time to return to Shaker Heights rather than trying to recreate it in Dallas and Denver,” she said in an email. “Growing up in a community and a school system that exposed me to people at all ends of the socioeconomic spectrum and that valued the contributions of people of different creeds and ethnicities, made (returning) a no-brainer for me and my fellow Shaker graduates.” Coming back also gave Menesse an opportunity to change careers. She earned an urban studies degree from Cleveland State University with an emphasis in economic development. “When I was thinking about coming back to Cleveland, the opportunity to help the city I was from and really make an impact was appealing,” said Jeff Epstein, executive director of
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necting and making friendships beyond the racial, social and economic comfort zones of students. Jaffe said diverse groups of SGORR members, high school students, went into fourth-grade classrooms to talk about sensitive topics like prejudice and discrimination along with explaining things like peer pressure and how students make decisions. One goal was to help ensure that the generally positive relationships black and white students had in elementary school survived the transition to middle school as children became aware of social pressures. “What do you mean you didn’t sit at that table at lunch? What were you afraid of?,” Jaffe recalled as being one of the consequences of the peer pressure that SGORR members challenged elementary school students to understand and overcome. Perhaps most of all, graduates credit the quality of the education they got in the Shaker schools. “There was a level of ‘why’ as opposed to ‘what’ that more closely mirrored the college experience — a lot of nuance and insight,” said Todd Fetterman, managing director of the North Coast Angel Fund and the related North Coast Venture Fund, investShaker Heights High School has produced an impressive collection of Northeast Ohio leaders. (Kevin Reeves) ment funds committed to growing MidTown Cleveland Inc., the com- openness to others and the ability of til I became an adult, but they are a emerging businesses in Ohio. “Lookmunity development corporation the people I grew up with to be bedrock of who I am,” said Jenny ing back, many of the other students that serves Cleveland’s Midtown friends with me just because I was Spencer, managing director of the at Shaker were just as impressive as neighborhood. “Shaker was a big funny, quirky, whatever — not be- Detroit Shoreway Community Devel- anyone I’ve worked with since.” Menesse had a similar experience part of why I am doing the work I am cause they felt like they would be opment Organization. “As a child in doing today. Teachers like Terry Pol- more enlightened or cooler because elementary school, we talked about when she went to the University of Virlock and Jerry Graham instilled a love they had a black friend (plus I wasn’t segregation, prejudice, slavery. In ginia. “At the time, I couldn’t discern what of policy, history, government and very cool, so there’s that!),” she said high school, educators and SGORR I found dissatisfying about my years at pushed us to go deeper.” in an email. civic responsibility.” SGORR, the Student Group on Race UVA, but I think in retrospect the expeMany of the graduates said that the Colette Jones, the vice president for marketing and communications economic and social diversity of Relations, was mentioned as an import- rience lacked the peer group I had in at Destination Cleveland, the region- Shaker helped give them a broad per- ant influence by a number of the gradu- Shaker that was intellectually stimulatates. An elementary school teacher now ing and always pushing me to try new al nonprofit travel and tourism bu- spective on community. CLEVELAND μ NOVEMBER 27, world 2017 μaround PAGE 21 things and question the e, created the pro- BUSINESS “Shaker gave me a baseline of val- retired, Marcia JaffCRAIN'S reau, said she found in her classmates in the Shaker schools “an ues that I did not fully appreciate un- gram in 1983 to foster the value of con- me,” she said.
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