AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF)

Khaleel Barnwell’s journey to the classroom has been filled with learning opportunities. He considered a career in the Army. He studied medical illustration in college. He went to seminary. Then he had to make a decision about his profession.

“I felt like the best way to make use of those things that I’d been taught, was to come back home and help my home church,” Barnwell says. “I wouldn’t expect them to be able to pay for another pastor/admistrator, so I needed an extra full-time job. It just seemed like a natural fit to begin teaching.”

And now Mr. Barnwell is a perfect fit at Heritage Academy. He teaches Math. He had to overcome Dyslexia and his own difficulties with the subject to be able to teach it to others.

“I had to figure out how my brain worked. As a result, being somebody it didn’t come naturally to, helps me to understand how to communicate those things to people in ways that are easily comprehended.”

He’s also able to use his Faith to help his students.

“I can pull a kid to the side and pray. I can explain to them that, that’s not a behavior that God would approve of.”

When students wrap up their time here, they are ready for high school and whatever the future holds. They’re ready because of the hard work and dedication of Khaleel Barnwell, and the entire team at Heritage Academy.

“I hope for them, joy,” he says. “And by joy, I mean the feeling I feel every day when I come to this place.
I wish for them to ability for them retain their morality. And to sustain a personal purity, which I’ve learned through experience, produces a kind of peace that the world can’t take from you.”