About Me

Welcome to my portfolio

My name is Emily Roland, and I am proud to share with you all I have learned since entering the classroom only four years ago.

In 2015, Teach for America brought me to Memphis, Tennessee, where I continue to live and teach. I was eager to serve the students and families in this community, and I was excited to be moving closer to home. While I am originally from Bakersfield, California, I grew up in Meridian, Mississippi, and attended a rural school that first instilled in me a love of education, while also revealing some of the inconsistencies present in the school system.

When I graduated from high school in 2009, I knew I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to serve a community, and this drive led me to journalism. I believed — and still believe — that access to information was a way I could help tackle the inequities underserved communities face across the country. This passion led me to the University of Mississippi, where I graduated in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and the experience as editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Daily Mississippian. In my time at Ole Miss, I had the opportunity to cover politics, race, and community issues, and for the first time, I began to have a stronger understanding of the systematized inequities so many of our community members faced.

After graduating, I immediately went to work in journalism, fueled still by the passion I gained in college. I moved to Jacksonville, Florida, to work as an editor, journalist, designer, and digital producer for the Florida Times-Union newspaper, as well as various health and wellness magazines based in Florida. However, after being involved in various education stories, I soon remembered my love for education, which pushed me to apply for Teach for America.

As I look back now on my four years in the classroom, I think of how much I have learned, how proud I am to be part of the amazing work we are doing at my school and TFA-Memphis, and how much work there is still to be done. In my time here, I have had the privilege of teaching three grade levels: 2nd grade reading, 12th grade English and Senior Seminar, and now 7th grade reading at Memphis Rise Academy, a charter school that opened in 2014.

I am extremely grateful and proud of the unique skill sets that brought me to the classroom and of all I have learned in the past four years from mentors, coaches, teachers, peers, and most of all, from my students. I appreciate you taking the time to look through my portfolio of work, and I hope my vision and love for education comes across with the same amount of passion I take into the classroom with me each day.