Salome Thomas

"Right from the beginning I worked on a single principle. These students would never know they couldn’t be successful – I would inspire them to believe they could win.”
- Salome Thomas-El

It takes a remarkable human being to dedicate his life to those nobody else believes in. Salome Thomas-El is such a man, driven by a larger purpose, who became a true hero to hundreds of troubled students in Philadelphia.

Raised in the projects, Thomas-El went on to earn an Ivy League education and chose to return to the inner city to become a principal. Armed with only a fierce commitment to students nobody else believed in, he transformed their lives and gave them hope. In a stroke of creative genius, he revived the long-dormant chess team to unite his students, leading them to victory at the national championships. His dedication gave them the personal strength to go on and attend magnet high schools, major colleges, and universities.

Thomas-El tells his inspirational story in the highly praised, I Choose to Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to Desert the Inner City. But, it was the long-ago death of a promising student that moved him to continue his mission and write The Immortality of Influence, a refreshing, commonsense roadmap to help kids on the fringes achieve their dreams. A compelling speaker, Thomas-El shares that with promise and determination, any student can be inspired to succeed. Distributed by Tubemogul.