West Side Native Striving to Make a Difference at North Lawndale College Prep

Arriel Janae Williams, 29, is the new principal at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (NLCP), 1615 S. Christiana Ave., after graduating from the charter school in 2008. Photo credit: By Wendell Hutson
Arriel Janae Williams, 29, is the new principal at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (NLCP), 1615 S. Christiana Ave., after graduating from the charter school in 2008. Photo credit: By Wendell Hutson

West Side Native Striving to Make a Difference at North Lawndale College Prep

In Chicago, it’s rare that a high school alumnus returns as principal shortly after graduating but that’s exactly what 29-year-old Arriel Janae Williams did this year.

The native West Side resident is the new principal at North Lawndale College Preparatory High School (NLCP), where in 2008 she graduated. And now Williams, who also goes by her spiritual name Azadi (which means freedom), said she is working hard to improve life for students at the school.

“I want to create opportunities for my students and give them a chance to experience life in a way that is rewarding and uplifting,” said Williams, who speaks Spanish fluently. “This is a school that caters to its students in order to help them prepare for college but to also helps them prepare for life as adults.”

As a a charter high school, NLCP, 1615 S. Christiana Ave., currently has 317 predominately black students, according to Williams, and is located in an area known more for crime, unemployment and stagnant economic development, than many of the wonderful things Williams said exist there. She grew up in North Lawndale and said she is currently looking to relocate back to her childhood community from Bronzeville where she currently resides.

“I initially was living in North Lawndale with my mom but then I started looking for places to live (on my own) in North Lawndale,” said Williams. “But to be honest with you, I was very dismayed with the quality of apartments that I found at that time and I ended up moving to Little Village before going to Bronzeville.”

While attending Lawrence University in Wisconsin where she earned a bachelor’s in English, she worked every summer at NLCP until she graduated from college in 2012.

“I worked in the office one summer and then bounced around doing other stuff at the school,” she recalled. “After I graduated from college, I returned to North Lawndale to work as a teacher’s aide, then a teacher, assistant principal, and finally principal.”

She said it bothers her that some people question whether she is qualified to be a high school principal since she does not have a master’s degree and a General Administrative Certificate also known as Type 75, two state mandates for CPS principals.

“I’ve done a lot in a short amount of time but I’ve done it well and I am well qualified for the role I hold today,” she added.

But choosing education as a career is not something she thought she would ever do even though her mother worked for 20 years at Chicago Public Schools as an administrator.

“If you would have told me when I graduated from college that I would someday be teaching, I would have laughed at you,” she said. “My mind back then was literally just trying to collect a paycheck and to find my way through life.”

When she is not at school Williams, who is single with no children, said she enjoys riding her bike, painting, writing poetry, singing at amateur venues, and driving her car around town.

“I have a collection of poetry that I started writing when I was 20 and I had planned on getting it published and having a book signing party at my 30th birthday party (next month), but my dad passed away in October, so that threw me a little off,” explained Williams. “As far as me driving, I did not get my driver’s license until I was 25 because I boycotted cars. But now that I have a car, I find myself driving everywhere.”

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.