Conversation With Educator Julia Miller At New Haven Museum On Dec. 11

From the New Haven Museum:

NEW HAVEN, CT — Julia Miller knows first-hand the challenges faced by New Haven Schools. A proud Elm City native, teacher, parent and alumna, she fully understands that student learning, growth, and mastery of skills and content are what’s important, not random numbers. Miller will be joined by Inner City News Editor and WNNH host, Babz Rawls-Ivy, for “Inspiration in Education: A Conversation with Julia Miller,” on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, at 6 p.m., immediately following the Annual Meeting of the New Haven Museum Board of Directors at 5:30 p.m. A reception will follow.

Despite the challenges, Miller taps a wellspring of inspiration for her work: in her students, colleagues and community.

"I love New Haven," says Miller, the New Haven Public Schools 2024 Teacher of the Year and the 2025 Connecticut Teacher of the Year. She notes her deep New Haven pride, especially in its public schools. "I started my teaching career in Brooklyn, New York, and moved back to New Haven to raise my kids in this incredible, vibrant community like no other and have them attend New Haven public schools."

“Growing up in New Haven made me who I am and is what led me to become an educator teaching in my hometown,” Miller says. She attended a small, integrated K-8 magnet school in New Haven, where themes of diversity, parent involvement, and community drove the school, students felt supported, and creativity was nurtured.

In high school, however, Miller encountered a different reality. As a white, middle-class student in the honors track at a large, comprehensive high school in the district, she quickly discovered she had different opportunities available to her than many of her peers. She learned that even those opportunities paled in comparison to the resources suburban students had at their disposal.

"I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to tackling these inequities and making sure young people’s needs were met," she says.

As an education and civics teacher, student-council advisor, and restorative-justice instructor at Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, Miller imparts to her students a deep understanding of the power of their voices to make change.

"I want my students to be informed so that they can be empowered to make the changes they want to see in society," she says. "I try to help them learn how to analyze sources, think critically, and make applications to their lives and the world around them. I want them to be engaged and practitioners of their learning."

Of similar mind, moderator Rawls-Ivy says her motivation for taking part in the discussion can be summarized by a quote from Marian Wright Edelman, the activist for civil rights and children's rights and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

"I, like Edelman, believe, ‘When I fight about what is going on in the neighborhood, or when I fight about what is happening to other people's children, I'm doing that because I want to leave a community and a world that is better than the one I found.’"

Miller notes her high school alma mater today is doing incredible work but is still severely underfunded and over-enrolled, trying its best to provide for all its students, including the hundreds of newcomers who come to the city for refuge and opportunities each year.

"We need to fully and fairly fund our schools so that every student has what they need, so that students receive the services they need and the resources they so deeply deserve, no matter their zip code," she said.

Acknowledging the value of incorporating history into the curriculum, Miller notes that although she teaches civics, she grounds it very much in history.

"You can’t make the changes you want to see if you don’t understand what happened before," she says. For example, the final exit task in her civics class is a social-movements research paper in which students choose a movement from the 1960s/1970s to research, evaluate its impact and make important connections to today.

Miller is excited to be bringing her civics classes to the New Haven Museum this year to view the Shining Light on Truth exhibit and the new Amistad exhibit.

"We began the year exploring and interrogating monuments with New Haven specific examples: the Columbus statues coming down, the William Lanson statue going up," she says.

"Our school (Metro) is two blocks away from the site of where the proposed 1831 Black college would have been, and I’m excited to have students think about how they could make a monument to what could have been, a historical marker for this until recently mostly untold story, and perhaps a call to action,” she said.

About Julia Miller

Julia Miller is a social studies teacher committed to antiracist education and project-based learning. Miller currently teaches a 10th-grade education course, 11th-grade civics, and a 12th-grade restorative justice law class at Metropolitan Business Academy. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from New York University’s Gallatin School, a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and a sixth-year certificate in educational leadership from Southern Connecticut State University.

Miller leads new initiatives including the Metro Youth Justice Panel, a student-led restorative justice program that aims to repair harm, provide accountability, and support students who make mistakes. She also helped launch a “Grow Your Own” model to nurture the next generation of NHPS teachers through the creation of a new education and leadership pathway. She serves as pathway co-lead and is a teacher leader with Educators Rising.

Miller plays a variety of leadership roles as grade-level team lead, member of the Leadership and School Planning and Management Teams, student council advisor, and mentor teacher. She collaborates with community partners and universities and is a steering committee member of the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective. Miller has facilitated professional learning workshops at both the local and national level.

About Babz Rawls-Ivy

Babz Rawls-Ivy happily works to hold the stories and images of local and global Black people sacred. Believing print media is still a great way to engage, support and add to the rich conversations taking place in Black communities locally and abroad, she is editor-in-chief of The Inner-City News. The 30-year-old, award-winning weekly print publication published in New Haven is a Black-owned legacy publication, one of two Black print publications in New England.

Talking with folks is one of Rawls-Ivy’s finest assets. She is the weekday radio personality and producer of the “LoveBabz LoveTALK” show on 103.5 WNNH-LP Community Radio, during which she catches up with interesting newsmakers in Greater New Haven and beyond. She is renowned for her folksy, intimate and engaging style. She is a nationally recognized blogger and social media thought leader, popular podcaster, and is frequently sought after guest for appearances on local and national radio, television and podcasts.

Rawls-Ivy holds a B.S. in marketing from Barber-Scotia College, a Historically Black College in Concord, North Carolina. She is a National Urban Fellow with a master’s in public administration from Baruch College, City University New York. She is certified as a spiritual director from Mercy Center School of Spirituality & Practicum in Madison, Connecticut. Her board/trustee commitments include: chair, Arts Council Greater New Haven Board; secretary, Long Wharf Theater; Planned Parenthood of Southern New England; member, New Haven Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; president, Winnett Food Forrest; chair, CT End Solitary Confinement; founder/creator, The Freed Woman Fund, an endowed fund to aid Black women exiting prison and returning to the community.

About the New Haven Museum

The New Haven Museum has been collecting, preserving and interpreting the history and heritage of Greater New Haven since its inception as the New Haven Colony Historical Society in 1862. Located in downtown New Haven at 114 Whitney Avenue, the Museum brings more than 375 years of New Haven history to life through its collections, exhibitions, programs and outreach. As a Blue Star Museum, the New Haven Museum offers the nation’s active-duty military personnel and their families, including National Guard and Reserve, free admission all year. For more information visit http://newhavenmuseum.org or @NewHavenMuseum or call 203-562-4183.