Our Purpose
Why We're Here
I once had a student with a stunningly positive personality and a heart bigger than I’d ever seen. Whenever I spoke to her, she had a sparkle in her eyes that told me she was awaiting the next exciting thing to happen. Two years later, she was suddenly diagnosed with Adrenocortical Carcinoma, an extremely rare but even more aggressive cancer with a meager five-year survival rate of twenty percent. At eight years old, her chances were hard to accept.
During her long stays at St. Jude’s Hospital undergoing intense chemotherapy for months at a time, this once spirited little girl began sleeping through many of her days, when she was not bent over with unbearable nausea and pain. She was able to attend only three hours of school a week within the hospital, whereas the average student in second grade attends about thirty-five hours a week. Though her teachers were qualified, they simply could not provide enough time for her to keep up with her peers.
In addition to losing time to her illness, she suffered significant hearing loss from the chemotherapy, which will affect her learning abilities for the remainder of her life. Half of her time at St. Jude’s was spent on morphine drips that inhibited her ability to function properly in general, and the other half she spent on Mitotane (oral chemotherapy), which made her illogical, irrational, and overly emotional. Her ability to learn was being stifled by the medications intended to fight her condition, but she was still determined to grow up and cure cancer herself.
When she became stubborn and wanted to attend public school again, she would fall asleep in the afternoons and the other students would tiptoe around her. At the end of June, this strong-willed little girl was declared cancer-free, but she will continue to struggle academically to not only catch up with her peers but to keep up because of her hearing loss. Without the function of her adrenal gland, she will be on prednisone, fludrocortisone and zantac for the remainder of her life, which will consistently suppress her immune system inevitably causing more illness and the inevitable absences from school. 
Her mother expressed great frustration with her daughter’s academic struggles on her daily online journal. I followed her story closely and realized how far behind she was falling, sometimes missing weeks of school due solely to fatigue. Her frustration peaked as she saw her peers growing and learning, and her lifelong ambition to cure cancer seemed to be falling further and further from her grasp. This mature, intelligent little girl tugged at my heartstrings and made me think immediately, “How can I help?” The creation of The Mobile Classroom is a direct result of her experience. Children like this are fighting a terrible battle, and we want to ease the frustration of the additional battle with education.
The Mobile Classroom cannot cure cancer. It cannot help every single ill child in the country to be successful in school. However, if it could help even one student like her, we would be that much closer to achieving our vision of equal opportunity for every child. One day, she will grow up and become a doctor. One day, she might just cure cancer and save thousands of little learners just like herself. The Mobile Classroom wants to help her get there.
