Dr. Angela Lang can stand on the front steps of the public charter school she founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and see the dumpster where she and her sister scavenged for food as children.
“I grew up in a housing project 50 yards from where our new school building now sits,” Lang says. “As a child growing up in poverty here, I was an underachiever. As a high school student, I had a GPA of 1.5. I had few hopes or desires and no plans. Then, a chance encounter with a counselor created a pathway for me to go to college. As the first person in my family to do so, I was able to step out of poverty. The chance to bring that moment full circle, to come back home and open a school, is the inspiration behind I Dream Big.”
Dr. Lang is the founder and CEO of I Dream Big Academy, a public charter school for students in grades six through ten in Tuscaloosa’s West End, a community with historically high poverty rates and low college attainment. Fewer than six percent of adults in the community hold college degrees.
Opened in the fall of 2025, I Dream Big Academy combines rigorous academics with early access to higher education through dual enrollment at Stillman College, a Historically Black College / University (HBCU). HOPE provided $4.5 million in facility financing to support the construction of a purpose-built school directly on the Stillman College campus. High school students at I Dream Big participate in dual enrollment classes, ensuring they graduate not only with exposure to college life, but also with college credits.
“We were very intentional about locating the school on the Stillman campus in order to demystify the concept of college and change our students’ perception that college is not for them,” Dr. Lang says. “If they’ve already been able to succeed in a college classroom as high school students, they are college material. There’s no reason they can’t continue that success. By creating a pathway to college, we can break the cycle of generational poverty that grips our community.”
While Dr. Lang and her founding partner, Dr. Lucretia Prince, are seasoned educators, finding the financing to turn that dream into bricks and mortar was a learning curve.
“I know how to teach kids to read and I know how to love on kids. I did not know how to find funding to create a school. We talked with HOPE, along with other financial organizations. What sold us was the feeling that for HOPE, this was not just a business transaction. They understood our mission and most importantly, they believed in our mission.”
“Dr. Prince and I are two brown girls who grew up in poverty here. To stand on the porch of our brand-new school building on the historic grounds of Stillman College is a testament that if we can dream it, believe it, and prepare for it, we can achieve anything. The legacy that I hope our school holds is in its name. If you enter our doors and you dare to dream, the possibilities are endless.”