10 Within 10 Recognition

Koree Woodward, ’03, was a little girl who adored school.

“School was always a happy place for me,” she says. “I felt welcome there and loved. My teachers understood me and saw the best in me. They made me feel like I could flourish.”

Now Woodward is returning that favor for a new generation of children. She is the kind of teacher who can’t go to a local restaurant without a teen squealing “Mrs. Woodward!” and running up for a hug.

Kids talk about her cool science experiments years afterward. Local parents raised $35,000 to build her a new science lab.

She so excelled at teaching that she was asked to lead other teachers. Soon she was assistant principal, then principal of Grand River Preparatory High School, a charter public school ranked as one of the nation’s top high schools by the Washington Post.

Now she leads a sister school, Wellspring Preparatory High School in Grand Rapids, where students’ ACT scores are among the highest in West Michigan.

Her diverse, innovative school features moral focus and high expectations. She expects everybody to go to college.

“We teach them life skills, big time,” Woodward says. “What they learn here they can apply everywhere.”

Her joy often comes in small moments.

She tells of a student who struggled with discipline issues, and she struggled daily to help him. One day at lunch, he saw two freshmen about to throw food. “He put his hand up and said, ‘No, no, man – we don’t do that here.’ That was amazing.

“You see past their faults and their bad decisions and you love them anyway,” Woodward says. “If you do that, you can do amazing things.”