- Nice to see you.
- Hi.
- Oh, my God. I'm so excited.
I love teachers.
So, tell us about your students,
'cause she told us a little about your school.
- So, first off, our students are just absolutely amazing.
I'm gonna cry.
- Oh, it's okay, I cry all the time.
Welcome.
- So we serve students 14-21,
and in Ohio, they have until they're 21 to earn
a high school diploma free
before they would have to go on and get their GED.
And so we serve 14-21 year olds.
We serve 99% African-American.
We serve 100% free lunch.
- Wow. - We have 63 students
who are teen parents.
Several students who have dropped out,
they're choosing to come back
despite all the barriers that they go through...
- Hurdles. - ...such as homelessness.
It's raw. It's gritty.
But they are fighters and they persevere.
- And education is key.
- Yes. - Yeah.
Education is the door to the not being homeless.
- Absolutely. - The difference between
having a job and not having a job.
- Absolutely, and if it truly wasn't for us,
myself, the other teachers, the admin,
our founder, Mr. Gregory..
- The idea of this school in general.
- ...I don't know where they'd be.
So if it wasn't for us--
- That's amazing. It's really cool.
(audience clapping)
So you wrote Britney for a classroom makeover, why?
What was your classroom looking like?
- Very boring.
Small, windowless.
- [Kelly] Windowless.
- Windowless, yes.
And so, being a public charter school,
we receive funding from the state,
but it's a fraction of what public schools would receive
and so every dollar we stretch to make sure that
that dollar goes back into the students education,
the teachers.
So having, you know, extra money for supplies--
- It's not really there.
- It's not really there, exactly.
So I reached out to Britney several times.
- You're like, "No, really. Please."
- Yeah, I was like, "Please, please pick me."
Pick our school and showcase this and we've been
to several homes and just seeing where they come from,
and so knowing that they're going to come into
a space, hopefully, that
blows their mind and happy... - [Kelly] Happy.
- ... and safe and just beautiful.
- And creative.
All your rooms have a lot of color.
It's beautiful.
It's just amazing what you do.
So, Britney has a surprise for Kristen, I think.
- Yeah.
So, you know that we have been working together
for the past few weeks,
kind of talking about what you in a classroom.
But what you don't know is that 48 hours ago,
my team and I completely flipped your classroom
without you knowing.
(crowd cheering)
Yes and you're about to see it live on
The Kelly Clarkson Show.
- So are you ready to see it?
I'm ready to see it.
All right, let's go, right here.
Let's go back to our good friend, Cameron Fontana,
from ABC 6 Columbus,
who's standing by the
Academy For Urban Scholars High School.
Hi, Cameron.
- Hey, Kelly.
Kristen, you have walked through this door for 10 years
seeing your classroom look one way.
Here it is, your brand new classroom.
(crowd cheering)
- Oh, my God.
Oh, my gosh.
Here you go. Here you go.
It's so beautiful. - It doesn't even look
like the same building.
- [Kelly] Oh, my Gosh.
Okay, wait, Britney.
- The art on the walls, Kelly,
the new furniture here, the computers,
I mean, this classroom even has a green velvet couch.
Is this not incredible?
And look at this, most importantly,
all the lives that are changed here,
this quote on the wall,
"It always seems impossible until it's done,"
by Nelson Mandela.
The lives that'll be changed in this room.
- [Kelly] Wow.