TUTWILER — Hans Hageman, a native of Harlem, New York, is the new executive director of the Tutwiler Community Education Center (TCEC).
He has three decades of experience as a visionary social entrepreneur.
Hageman has started and led award-winning independent schools and youth development programs in Harlem, India and Africa.
He believes that the people of the Mississippi Delta "have been ignored for too long by the rest of the country" and hopes to build on the work of the nuns who created TCEC.
"The Mississippi Delta faces many challenges, including low wages, high unemployment, high poverty rates, low educational attainment, poor health outcomes, low life expectancy, a lack of affordable housing and limited access to health care. Additionally, there is a lack of economic opportunity, limited access to quality education and job training, and a legacy of systematic racism and injustice that has disproportionately impacted the region," Hageman noted. "To address these challenges, it is essential to invest in developing local infrastructure, job training programs, educational resources and initiatives that promote economic development and social justice."
The Tutwiler Community Education Center logo projects unity in diversity.
He shifted his mission to youth development and education when he created The East Harlem School at Exodus House. His work there was honored with an Essence Magazine award and The Robin Hood Foundation Heroes Award, among others. It also brought him national media coverage from CNN, The New York Times, People Magazine, and all the major television networks.
Hageman was in the U.S. Army Reserve and has been a volunteer firefighter.
Most recently, he was the executive director of Land to Learn, an organization that works in food justice through the development of school gardens. While there, Hageman created a vegetable gardening program and breathwork coaching certification program for teen boys incarcerated for violent crimes, and furthered his education in sustainability and advocacy for a more just food system as a member of the Pilot Community for the Black Farmer Fund, and board member for Farm School NYC.
Following are highlights of Hageman's life and career, in his own words:
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"I’m honored to have been asked to join the TCEC team.
"I grew up in Harlem and East Harlem in challenging housing projects and, finally, in a home that housed 'Exodus House.' This was a groundbreaking residential community for drug addiction treatment. My Methodist minister father founded and ran the program until he had a paralyzing stroke.
"My mother was a Black woman whose large family moved from Georgia to Chicago. She went on to become a teacher. My father was a white man born in Nebraska who marched and was jailed more than once with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They were my most important teachers.
"Through Exodus House and my parents, I learned early lessons about courage and the possibilities of the human spirit. I attended Princeton University and law school at Columbia University. I practiced law as a New York prosecutor, a public defender and chief counsel for a United States Senate subcommittee.
"I left the law practice and started independent schools in Harlem for children who were not successful in public school. Running these schools allowed me to directly impact the school-to-prison pipeline and provide a nurturing environment for creative students who were nontraditional learners.
"Most of these students had never left their community. With our school, they traveled to Senegal, Ghana, and Nicaragua. They worked on service projects that helped those communities and expanded my students' horizons. The young people from my Harlem schools are now young adults raising families and working in construction, data security, social work, the military, entrepreneurship and as college professors. I'm honored to now call many of them 'friends.'
"I co-founded a girls' school in Lucknow, India, for lower-caste Hindu and Muslim girls. For several years, I was also a consultant for an innovative program in police training, where I worked with the Baltimore and St. Louis police departments.
Before coming to Tallahatchie County, new Tutwiler Community Education Center Executive Director Hans Hageman oversaw a garden-based education program in New York's Hudson Valley that assisted teen males convicted of extremely violent crimes. (Photo special to The Sun-Sentinel)
"I went on to lead other youth nonprofits, both here and in Africa and India. Most recently, I was the executive director for Land to Learn, a garden-based education program that works in 11 schools in New York's Hudson Valley. While there, I created a vegetable gardening and yoga program for teen boys in a maximum-security prison convicted in adult court of extremely violent crimes.
"During my 15 minutes of fame, I was honored by Congress, and blessed to receive the Robin Hood Foundation Hero Award and the Essence Magazine Award. I’m also featured in a couple of books, including one by a former FBI profiler in his book on people obsessed with good or evil.
"I still smile when I recall Maya Angelou telling me, “I see you have a flair for entertainment.”
I’ll let you all decide if she was correct.
"I’m the father of four children ranging from 16 to 32 years of age.
"My main goal is to become 'an ancestor worth remembering.'
"To that end, I’m excited and honored to join the Tutwiler community. TCEC and the Tutwiler community have a beautiful foundation of energy and spirit.
"I look forward to working with you to build on those qualities. The work we can do together can make Tutwiler an example for the Delta and the rest of the country of revitalization, resilience, strong communities and the power of love."
