Newspaper Spotlights School Principal Milton Mitchell '01

September 29, 2016

"It was the unrest in Ferguson that made Milton Mitchell want to leave the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County and come back home," begins a story in the St. Louis American. The piece notes that Mitchell, a 2001 graduate of DePauw University, is now principal of City Academy, an independent elementary school.

"After the Mike Brown situation, my heart went out to this community," Mitchell tells the newspaper. "I didn’t realize how much I love St. Louis until I saw it hurting."

Chris King writes, "Many of the City Academy students he would come home to lead were directly impacted by the events in Ferguson, which spread to St. Louis."

"I felt I could make a difference, especially here, given City Academy’s intentional mission to take kids from the community I love dearly, no matter what barriers or obstacles, and propel them through to change their lives, families and, ultimately, communities," says Mitchell, who majored in elementary education at DePauw and earned a master's degree from Webster University.

King notes, "Mitchell graduated from McCluer High School in 1997 and started what became a surprising family tradition by matriculating at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Mitchell was recruited when he visited campus at the invitation of a friend, Tracy Booth (now Dr. Tracy Heinz). The sight of flat corn fields dotted with ostrich and bison farms was all new to this son of majority-black ring suburbs, but a generous financial package helped him make the leap." (photo at left by Wiley Price/St. Louis American)

"There was a small number of students of color, but we bonded very quickly, and the university offered tremendous support," Mitchell states.

It was at DePauw, according to the American, "where he met his wife, now Angie Mitchell, and where his younger siblings followed him. His brother Michael is music director for Leslie Odom Jr. (of Hamilton fame) in New York, and his sister Madeline Mitchell is associate director of client services for George Washington University in the nation’s capital. Milton Mitchell was recruited to DePauw by a black man, Rod Haywood, then associate director of admissions, who then helped him land a job on campus in the admissions office after graduation. That set him on the path to his career." (photo: Leslie Odom Jr. and Michael O. Mitchell '02 on stage at DePauw's Kresge Auditorium; September 20, 2016)