La Juan White – Principal
La Juan White is a Brooklyn native who was raised and still resides in Clinton Hill. La Juan received her bachelor’s degree in Mortuary Science from Saint John’s University, originally planning to follow in her father’s footsteps and run the family funeral home. As she studied towards her Master’s of Science at Wagner College in Staten Island, she realized she wanted to share her love for science with others. So she changed her major from Pathology to Biology and decided to pursue a career in teaching.
La Juan taught Biology/Living Environment at the high school level for 4 years, and then moved to the middle-school level with the goal of impacting students earlier in their academic careers. After four years of teaching regents-level coursework at Park Place Middle School in Park Slope, LaJuan heard the call to leadership. She was accepted into New Leaders for New Schools, a program that places aspiring leaders as resident principals in successful schools so that they gain real exposure to the work of the principal as they earn their administrative degrees.
New Leaders for New Schools prepared La Juan for her next professional step, which was to replicate the success she saw at Mott Hall, the Harlem middle school she interned with, in Brooklyn. In 2004 she opened Mott Hall IV, a new small middle school, as the founding Principal. She led that school for 7 years, during which she developed a rigorous academic program with a variety of enrichment opportunities in a positive, tight-knit community.
LaJuan worked for the Office of New Schools for several months, bringing her experience as a new school leader to the assessment and leader preparation process. She was later tapped to take the helm at a Bronx middle school that was slated for phase-out, and has worked hard to ensure that students and teachers are challenged and supported to do their best work.
LaJuan is excited to take on this second opportunity to launch a new school – this time in Queens.