Increased parent engagement was a schoolwide priority and highlight of the year. Several new opportunities for parent and family involvement made for many precious moments, with each event being well-attended and enjoyed by all.

We expanded our Lower School this year by welcoming our inaugural Kindergarten and 1st Grade classes. We have already seen amazing results from the opportunity to love, educate, and uplift our students from the very beginning of their academic journey.

Mrs. Robinson uses a Montessori approach in the Kindergarten classroom that encourages each child to move, touch, and manipulate different materials at their own pace. In providing opportunities to follow their interests and choose their own activities, kindergarteners develop their capacity for concentration and engage their emerging powers of reason, imagination, and sociability.

Our 1st Grade teacher, Mrs. Evertson, has also witnessed the benefits of welcoming students to AJC at a younger age. Her classroom provides a safe space for joyful learning and prepares students for success in the years to come.

In Kindergarten and 1st Grade, students gain independence skills that result in self-confidence, purpose, and a sense of responsibility for themselves and their community. These foundational skills will serve our students well throughout their time at AJC and beyond.

With new spaces for school-wide events and a growing team of teachers and staff, an infusion of fresh ideas enriched the life of the School this year. Evolving from fresh ideas to “first-annuals,” these events will be marked on the AJC calendar for years to come.

Designed to promote school spirit, “House Teams” encouraged teamwork and school pride. Students and staff were assigned to one of four Houses that were based on four of the tenets of our PRIDE pledge: I am Prepared, I show Respect, I model Integrity, I have a Dream, I will Excel. The Teams compete for points through positive behavior.

Read Hard Play Hard allowed students to become engrossed in a great book in the morning and spend the afternoon at play. The Greatest Writing Contest Ever encouraged students to enter their best-written work into a school-wide competition with incredible prizes up for grabs. The first annual Lower School Movin’ On Up Ceremony was celebrated on our own stage with a gym full of parents and families cheering on the 4th graders moving up to 5th, and awards given to K-4 students for accomplishments throughout the year.

Revenue to support the growth in the number of students served (25 students in 2009 to 178 in 2023) has grown from nearly $400,000 in the first year to nearly $4 million in 2023.

* These figures do not include capital expenses, Building Hope campaign pledges or contributions, donated goods/services, a special one-time employee bonus program, or existing restricted endowment funds, all of which are included in our audit and may be found on our website, ajcschool.org.

** Includes $264,033 from the operational reserve component of the Building Hope Campaign, which was intended to offset annual expense increases due to the expansion.

As a school, we have always aimed to walk alongside students for as long as they’ll let us. Success and setbacks alike, we strive to be a place where kids feel loved - a place they can “come home to” for encouragement or advice.

Lorin Johnson, our Graduate Support Coordinator and former AJC student herself, describes our Graduate Support Program best:

Our graduate support team begins building relationships with students in their 7th grade year to start exploring high school options. In 8th grade, students complete a High School Prep curriculum and, under the guidance of Graduate Support, apply to the high schools best suited to their abilities and goals. Many high-achieving students receive scholarships funded through a combination of the AJC Scholarship Program and private school scholarship programs, allowing them to attend high schools that would otherwise be out of reach. UP RVA, a long-time partner and collaborator, provides extraordinary and much-needed support services to many of the graduates in high school and in college.

Throughout their high school years, students gain valuable experience through Graduate Support’s Summer Work Program, in partnership with local companies and non-profits.

Aaleya, AJC ‘19 and Collegiate School ‘23, with

Greg McCandless, Executive Director of UP RVA

With the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic coming into focus this year, we worked to secure funding to provide more support services than ever before. Serving younger students, many of whom came to AJC having been out of in-person school for nearly two years, we recognized the critical need for academic and social-emotional intervention, speech therapy, and mental health support. Working within the Federal EANS (Emergency Assistance for Non-Public Schools) Program, we secured funding to provide access to the following resources, right at school:

• School-Based Trauma Therapist
  • 24 students received outpatient trauma therapy
• Behavioral Support Aide
  • 16 students received daily one-on-one social-emotional support
• Lower School Classroom Aides
  • Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades
• Speech Therapist
  • 12 students received weekly therapy
• Middle School Academic Interventionist
  • 12 students received daily academic  intervention

Each of these resources has proven to be integral to our mission and will be prioritized in years to come as we work to secure long-term funding for these critical support services.

of grads enroll in area independent schools, many receiving tuition support from AJC

of graduates remain in-touch with AJC

Class of 2023 on-time graduation rate

total graduates from Anna Julia Cooper School

An AJC education is about more than academic growth. It has always been about the whole child: social-emotional growth, spiritual growth, and an ever-evolving offering of enrichment opportunities made possible through our many non-profit partnerships. From life skills like learning to swim to art, athletics, summer sleep-away camps, and so much more, students are exposed to a host of activities, giving them the opportunity to discover new talents and interests.

Anna Julia Cooper was an educator, author, activist and one of the most prominent African American scholars in United States history. She gave voice to the African American community during the 19th and 20th centuries, from the end of slavery to the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Cooper—who once described her vocation as “the education of neglected people”—viewed learning as a means of true liberation. She is best known for her educational leadership, her challenges to the racist notion that African Americans were naturally inferior, and her groundbreaking collection of essays and speeches, A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South (1892).

Anna Julia Cooper’s life spanned 105 years from the last days of slavery to the heart of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. She grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and spent most of her adult life teaching and serving as a principal in numerous schools, including several in Washington, D.C. A woman of deep religious faith and conviction, she was also an activist who fought for civil rights for her fellow African Americans, equality for women, and the poor.

The Founding Board voted to name the School after Anna Julia Cooper on June 8th, 2009. Coincidentally, three days later the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp in her honor. The only woman quoted within its pages, her call for freedom is included in the United States Passport: “The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect or a party or a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity.” Her legacy lives on here at AJC, through students, often faced with difficult circumstances, striving to reach their full potential — and through those called to uplift them along the way.

- Anna Julia Cooper