Rita Knight
Revson Fellow 2000-2001
Family Service Coordinator
Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families Countee Cullen Community Center
Rita Knight is Family Service Coordinator for the Countee Cullen Community Center of the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families.
Born and educated in Evergreen, Alabama, Ms. Knight received a B.S. from Alabama State University. Moving to New York in 1986, she worked as a pre-school instructor at Bethlehem Baptist Academy in Brooklyn before becoming a Resource Consultant for the New York City Human Resources Administration, where she interviewed clients to help determine their eligibility for government assistance. Her experiences at HRA increased her awareness of the necessity for programs that could offer assistance, job training, and support to poor people and families while empowering them and their communities in the struggle against poverty. Ms. Knight came to Rheedlen in 1995 as a case manager in family counseling and dropout prevention. Recognition of her work let to her promotion to Family Service Coordinator in her third year at Rheedlen.
Currently, Ms. Knight develops and implements a variety of empowerment projects within the community, including programs in adult literacy, GED programs, adult computer training, male motivation workshops, educational workshops for parents, a parent newsletter, and family social activities. Ms. Knight’s achievements in increasing the quality and level of parental involvement in empowerment programs have made her a citywide resource for other Beacon schools and their program development efforts.
As a Revson Fellow, Ms. Knight intends to enhance her understanding of urban social and education issues with the intention of preparing a parent empowerment proposal for urban areas. She plans to take courses in the economics of urban and minority education, the sociology of urban education, and in program leadership.
(The Revson Fellow’s biography that appears above was last updated in 2000. Revson Fellows may update their biographies on this site by sending email to: revson@columbia.edu)
More than anything that Columbia had to offer, I feel that I’ve lived 9 new lives vicariously through the 9 other fellows. These are the 9 lives struggling and working for the City, while I was too, that I never knew about. My horizon has been broadened through which I would never have gotten in my classrooms.
[Robin is a Master’s degree candidate at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Mailman School of Public Health.]
