PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – When Sabrina Rena McLemore thinks about her educational journey, she knows it started with her great aunts, Nealie Bowens and Leader Hoskins. These women were pillars of Houston’s Acres Homes community, a predominantly African-American enclave that was established during World War I. Bowens and Hoskins founded Hoskins Kindergarten, which not only taught children academic basics but also principles from the Bible.
It was where McLemore first went to school.
“[Earning my Ph.D.] means the world to me,” she said. “[This accomplishment] honors my great aunts Nealie Bowens and Leader Hoskins. When I think of my educational journey, I automatically credit my foundation to these two great women, as well as my parents, Arthur T. Jr. and Mamie Lane. Together, these four individuals were not only instrumental in my educational journey but also my Christian walk.”
After earning a Bachelor of Science in Academic Studies from Sam Houston State University, McLemore came to Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) and received a Master of Arts in Counseling. This fall, she’ll receive her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership.
For the last ten years, she’s been working as a counselor, serving in middle and high schools in the Aldine Independent School District.
“Through this pandemic, the counseling career has been presented with great challenges,” she said. “Every day, I wake up to a brand new day and make the choice to hold on to the rewards and the gifts I have received in the past and will receive in the future by striving to make a difference in the life of a child. There is no greater joy and feeling to know that the children’s lives you’ve touched have paved the way for their future.”
McLemore chose to embark on her Ph.D. studies to not only further her career – although she plans to stay in school counseling – but also because she knew the education she’d receive for it at PVAMU would be stellar. The structure of the Ph.D. program worked with her schedule, and she felt comfortable working with professors in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling. The coursework allowed her to intern with two of her professors on a research project about math teachers, which inspired her own doctoral thesis, “Educational Leaders’ Perspectives of Working with LGBTQ Youth in Secondary Schools: A Phenomenological Study of Preparedness, Self-Evaluation, and Reflection of Professional Experience.”
“My research has already dismantled barriers for LGBTQ students and has opened the minds and hearts of individuals who couldn’t see past their personal biases,” she said.
Besides the field of research, attending PVAMU also immersed McLemore in HBCU culture. Her cousin, Angelette Jackson, who served as the lead teacher at Hoskins Kindergarten, is a Panther alumna, and so is McLemore’s husband, Erick McLemore. She loves the university’s family feeling.
“It’s the same feeling I get when I go to my parents’ home where I grew up,” she said. “PVAMU gives me the feeling of being home. I feel valued; I feel respected; I feel unique…I feel free to be me!”
That’s something she hopes to pass along to her children and her students. She also realizes her Ph.D. is much more than a degree. It’s tangible evidence of how dedication and hard work can pay off.
“[I] pursued [this degree] to honor my great aunt’s wishes of me being the first to, in their words, ‘go all the way,’” she explained. “But this degree also shows my daughters, my younger cousins, and those who are on the educational journey of achieving excellence that anything is possible.”
By Holly Beretto
-PVAMU-