Outstanding Senior - 2 year program

Shanese Baylor’s academic record is impressive to say the least. The Equine Business Management Certificate earned from IAA is her third degree, following a BS in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana (’00) and a Master of Public Health degree from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (’02). While at the IAA, Shanese not only recorded a perfect attendance record and a 3.486 cumulative GPA, but also maintained two very involved jobs. As an avid horsewoman, Shanese hopes to work with at-risk youth by incorporating horses into their lives. Her active involvement in a Washington, D.C. charter school for teenage parents coupled with work at a non-profit organization for inner-city youth exhibits Shanese’s dedication to the community.

Shanese is a founding science teacher and registrar of MEI Futures Academy. The Washington, D.C. charter school functions as a boarding and day school for teen parents and their children. Working with primarily 14-21 year-old parents and their 3-5 year-old children, the academy prepares participants to become not only better parents and students, but also good citizens and members of the community. Shanese has assumed leadership responsibilities at the Academy in line with her role as a school founder. She has worked to develop academic policies and procedures, course catalogs and sequences, and curriculum as well as maintaining the students’ attendance and classroom instruction.

In addition to her work with MEI Futures Academy, Shanese began an internship with a non-profit organization called Soaring Towards Educational Enrichment via Equine Discovery (STEEED), Inc during the summer of 2008. The program’s goal is to “provide District children equestrian, ecological and environmental science education and recreation activities.” She has continued her work with STEEED as Operations Manager with duties including payroll and account management. Her role in the organization also allows her to plan and teach horseback riding lessons as well as gardening and horticulture classes to youth campers. Currently, Shanese has plans to create a similar non-profit organization of her own on her family’s Virginia farm, but for the time being will continue her work with STEEED and the MEI Futures Academy.