Mentor for students
Jennifer Schroeder ’15 is bettering the D.C. public school system and earning accolades along the way.
Photograph by Digital Glass Photography
Middle school science educator Jennifer Schroeder takes her students outside the classroom and into the community so they can consider the places that science might intersect with their lives. Rather than sitting through a lesson about littering, for example, her students get their hands dirty, seeing for themselves just how—and where—discarded trash makes its way into the water system.
Schroeder discovered her love of science when she was in seventh grade, ultimately going on to study biology at Lafayette. After graduation, she spent two years working for Teach for America in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore areas, before earning her master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins University.
Recently, Schroeder spearheaded changes to the district-wide curriculum within D.C. Public Schools, working to prioritize growth of students from all backgrounds. “I serve a lot of students with language barriers and students from all different economic situations,” says Schroeder, who was both a D.C. Posse Scholar and track-and-field athlete while at Lafayette. “We want to implement this curriculum in a way that ensures they can all access it and all retain information.”
She has opened doors for her students to explore their passions, bringing to her school a culinary arts program, a business academy, and a chapter of DC SCORES, a nonprofit that focuses on both sports and poetry. Students stay busy yearlong, whether it’s through soccer practice and a poetry slam in the fall or a service project in the spring.
“We help students not only to be active, but to become well-rounded, amazing human beings,” she says.
These efforts have earned Schroeder recognition in her community and nationwide. Last year, she won the Excellence in Teaching Award, one of the highest honors in her school system. She is also the 2025 recipient of the Posse Foundation’s Ainslie Alumni Achievement Award, chosen from among nearly 30,000 Posse alumni across the country, for demonstrating incredible leadership and success while giving back to the world.
“My Posse cohort challenged thinking and gave each other a safe space. We are still each other’s biggest fans to this day,” Schroeder says. “It’s important to me to be able to give back.”
