We had the good fortune of connecting with India Ford, Ph.D. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi India, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I was born in Cleveland and raised in Euclid, Ohio. My background and upbringing played a significant role in my development. At Euclid High School, I was involved in the track and field program which afforded me the opportunity to obtain a full athletic scholarship from Indiana University. Without this experience, I may not have been able to afford to attend college to pursue my dream to become an educator.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
BUSINESS HISTORY: After 20 years of teaching in a local school district, I decided to step out on faith, pull my retirement funds and invest in opening a charter high school to support urban education. Although the task was daunting and difficult, it has now been ten years and T-Squared Honors Academy is still in existence. Since starting the school, I opened my education consulting company Ed. Innovations, LLC which has a subsidiary group called The Urban Achievement Initiative, which is my school management company. This portion of my business portfolio will be responsible for opening up and managing schools. I opened T-Squared in 2014, so it will be my first managed school of my business and in the fall of this year, I will be opening Equitas Preparatory School.

Was it easy? Absolutely not. Very time consuming and intellectually labor intensive. I go to work from 3am-6pm most days and spend a great deal of time ensuring that the operations of the school are effective. I overcame many of my challenges by sacrificing time. The lessons learned are many:

a. Being a school leader is a lonely position and, in this loneliness, you must learn to navigate through your personal feelings and the feelings of those around you in an effort to minimize thoughts of your own feelings of depression.

b. Sometimes you must accept that all your efforts are actually seeds that may not germinate until years later.

c. Education is not the priority of the masses regardless of what society says.

I want people to know that everyone’s mission in life is to help someone else and that happiness is not about how much money you make, but it is more about the impact that you have made on other people’s lives.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I love Edgewater Park and the Pier. I have always been fascinated with large bodies of water for the serenity. Both locations allow for me to calm my mind and focus on self care.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Special thanks is given to my husband James Taylor for being so supportive of my dreams and inspiring me to keep trying when it gets hard. I thank my children, Naundi and Hakeem Carter as well as my nephew Delvon Ford for being such good kids that I had the time to focus on my dream. My grandson, Rylen, granddaughter Elyonna and my niece Tommie for keeping me young. I also want to thank my sister, Lavora Mumin for being an ear when I need her. I thank my brother, my mother, my father, my grandmother and my uncle, who have now passed on, but who were my biggest cheerleaders when I was younger and I know they are cheering for me today.

Website: www.tsquaredacademy.com 

Instagram: t2honorsacademy

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@t-squaredhonorsacademy5474

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