RICHARDSON, Texas — For the past 30 years, Cynthia Trigg has been providing students with the tools to create a future once they walk across the graduation stage. And when Trigg had a vision for Evolution Academy, it included at-risk students whose future was unknown because of various issues.

“That was probably one of the best career and educational decisions that I have made,” said Trigg. “We have been able to just be so impactful and provide high school diplomas to students who have either dropped out of school, at-risk of dropping out or those that are just seeking a non-traditional method of instruction.”

It was 20 years ago that Evolution Academy opened its doors to the communities of Richardson, Spring and Beaumont. Since then, at least 4, 000 students have graduated from the charter institution. On average, Evolution Academy serves around 1,600 students of varying demographics in grades nine through 12.

“We have a vision for improving low-performing schools,” Trigg said, adding they see students who are “over-age and under-credited.” “We’re committed to serving disconnected youth by enabling our students to achieve academic, social and career success.”

Evolution Academy accepts applications for admissions all year-round. On a sprawling 50,000-square-foot campus in Richardson, students have access to a science lab, fitness center and wellness program, piano lab, culinary arts program and a state-of-the-art music studio, which allows students to learn to write and produce music.

“Our model includes caring professionals and individualized learning plans,” Trigg said. “It’s Standards, TEKS-based aligned curriculum and we have recently begun to incorporate career and technical training competencies in our academic programs with all three campuses partnering with local institutions of higher-learning.”

The Beaumont campus partners with Lamar Institute of Technology, the Spring location collaborates with Lone Star College (Fallbrook) and, in Richardson, students get to work with Dallas College. With the new partnerships, students not only leave the academy with a diploma but also the skill of either being college or career-ready.

“Twenty years ago, our goal was too merely, we just wanted to get students graduated,” she said. “But, as the times changed, and we really looked at our model, we noticed that just wasn’t enough. Kids really needed to have a tool, a plan of when they leave us what that looks like and for some of our students they just want to move into the workforce--- some want to move into college or career training.”

With an extensive career in education, Trigg knew one day she wanted to open up her own school once she retired. But, as fate would have it, that plan was put into motion much earlier than she envisioned.

“I’m so, so happy that I did not wait until retirement, because I just don’t know if I would have the stamina that I had 20 years ago,” said Trigg, laughing.

Starting out as a teacher, Trigg’s career led her down a path of principalship at the middle school and high-school levels and even education consulting. But, when she got into administration, she noticed that a group of students were typically underserved.

“What I began to notice is that you would have a group of kids… you’d start a ninth-grade cohort with about 1,000 students,” she said. “Yet, fast forward four years into that trajectory and with those students, you may graduate a class of maybe 300 or 400. Well, all of those students were not just transferring out. So, I began to wonder what does the drop-out rate really, really look like.”

As part of her research into drop-out rates across the metroplex, Trigg decided it was an “area of concentration and concern.”

“Education is the greatest equalizer, but if these kids are dropping out of school, then they are going to ultimately drop out of life hence poverty and all of the other components and isms that will show up,” she said.

With the research under her belt coupled with her history in education, Trigg decided it was time to step out on faith and build a school that would work to change the narrative thus, Evolution Academy was born.

“I began to explore what it would look like if we had drop-out recovery options for these students and it was feasible,” Trigg said. “We worked on a plan in the evening to really write a proposal to the Texas Education Agency. We went through a competitive process of completing that proposal and competing. I believe with my cohort we were generation seven and I believe that five applications were approved that year.”

Although she was unsure of what the future would look like starting a charter school, Trigg knew there was a bigger purpose at hand.

“It all started with seeing a need to be fulfilled and not really having a clear map of where that was going to take me,” she said.

So, she left a stable income to chase her dreams.

“My husband told me we’re on a faith walk, and I’ll support that because I really believe in what you’re doing and I know that you believe in it as well,” she said.  

Besides having a staff centered on being caring and compassionate to the students, they were also “strict, fair, and firm.” A recipe to the academy’s success includes the faculty and staff, according to Trigg.

“We busied ourselves with finding the best quality individuals that not only wanted to teach but also wanted to be really impactful about the students that we serve,” she said. “That was very important to us, because a lot of our buy-in had to be about developing strong relationships with our students.”

As far the next 20 years, Trigg has her sights on continuing the work she’s started in communities across Texas by closing the drop-out rate gap one student at a time.

“Our goal is just to continue to look at educational trends to determine where there are gaps and meet the needs of the students that we serve,” she said. “As I said, 25 years ago, our goal was focused in on just graduating students and giving them a high school diploma. The next 20 years will be continuous of that, but we’re adding layers to that.”

“Now, we’re looking at not only graduating students with a high school diploma, but graduating them college-career ready.”