This fall MEA member Arshen Baldwin was honored by the NAACP Saginaw Branch with its 2023 Young Professionals Award for playing multiple roles to improve her community – nearly 20 years after she took one of the hardest routes toward becoming a teacher.

Baldwin started out as an untrained substitute in a classroom where her predecessor walked away, unable to manage student behaviors.

“At first I was covering for the day, and the administrator noticed I had a good command of the classroom, so she asked me back,” Baldwin said. “I felt like I could give those kids what was given to me, and I ended up finishing the year there. I was able to build relationships in a short time.”

She had recently graduated from Central Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology, having planned to become a physical therapist. Then she married, started a family and began substitute teaching in Saginaw where she was raised by her grandmother since the age of nine.

Just second in her family to go to college, Baldwin said working with young people fit her values so she pursued a career: “I’m a very strong believer that education is the ticket out of poverty.”

She eventually earned two master’s degrees while working and raising two sons, and started at Saginaw Public Schools in 2011 as a special education teacher. The next year she took a role helping at-risk students complete credit recovery and career education in one new alternative program.

Baldwin defined the job, building relationships so students felt valued and wanted to come to school – even opening the building for Saturday help if needed. “My oldest students are now in their mid- to late-20s, and I still have great relationships with them to this day,” she said.

Three years ago she became a Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) specialist at Arthur Hill High School, delivering Tier 1 teaching tools for use with all students, monitoring academic and behavioral data to support interventionists, and aiding educators in addressing individual student needs.

“Sometimes a teacher will say, ‘I’m teaching this lesson and attempting to differentiate, and these students are still failing my assessment.’ And I may provide different strategies for reteaching or look at different ways to assess understanding – whatever is needed.”

Baldwin serves as a district trainer and leader in restorative practices, such as how to operate whole-class circles to build relationships or restorative circles to resolve conflict. Preventing and solving problems between a student and teacher or between students keeps kids in school and learning.

In addition, she teaches a Community Culture & Change course to aspiring educators at Saginaw Valley State University where she earned a degree. “We look at diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure lessons are multicultural in nature and include diverse perspectives no matter the content being taught.”

She serves on the board of trustees at Delta College where she’s been part of hiring a new president and launching a new dual-enrollment partnership with Saginaw schools so high school juniors and seniors can choose a pathway to graduate with up to one year of college credits.

And she’s an organizer for One Week One Street, a nonprofit that revitalizes a street in east Saginaw every third week in June. “We do landscaping, build porches, wash and paint houses, clean out yards. We’ve put in a community park and done community gardens. We plan a year in advance for this week, and we work hard those five days.”

Baldwin credits good time management and “a very strong village of family and friends” with helping her do so much and instill the same respect for education and community involvement in her two sons, now a freshman at University of Michigan and a junior in high school.

She was humbled to be recognized by an organization as iconic as the Saginaw NAACP, she said. “I don’t do it for recognition, but I’m grateful to be acknowledged by them. It tells me I need to keep going on to see where I can continue to make an impact.”