Karen Stokes Morris became President of the RJR Alumni on January 1, 2025
On January 1, 2025, Karen Stokes Morris (pictured below) became the President of the Board of Directors of the RJ Reynolds High School Alumni and Friends corporation. She presently is the Vice President. Former President Harry Corpening, for personal reasons, stepped down and became the Vice President.
Karen's parents graduated from RJR, as did she, as did two of her three children. She has been a teacher at RJR, the Director of the Arts Magnet Program at RJR, and an Assistant Principal at RJR.
You can send her an email at RJRalumnipres@gmail.com.
For sixteen consecutive years, the RJR Alumni organization has awarded a $1,000 cash gift to teachers who become a Teacher of the Year. Because she was named the Magnet teacher of the Year by the School System, the RJR Alumni gave her a $1,000 cash gift.
In order to receive her cash gift, she had to submit answers to a questionnaire sent to her by the RJR Alumni organization. Below are the answers she submitted (back in 2016).
How did you get to Reynolds?
I was a member of the class of 1986, but I had to fight to get there. I lived in a neighborhood that had been redistricted as Mount Tabor, and my junior year was the first one when high schools went back to having four grades in them. I was grandfathered into being able to attend Reynolds because I had been at Brunson, Wiley, and Paisley through the gifted program back when each student had an I.E.P., and my paperwork had the progression of schools typed on it. My younger brother’s’ paperwork however did not, so ours was a house divided with my sister and I attending RJR and my brother attending Tabor.
My parents graduated from RJR in 1960 and 62. My in-laws graduated in 1954 and 57. I feel like I've always been a part of Reynolds. My mother was a cheerleader and her high school friends were part of my childhood. Stories from their time “Amid the Pines” were part of my family lore.
When my own family moved back to Winston Salem from Decatur, GA in 2000, we attended some ball games, I had a dancing boot, and my husband had played basketball and tennis at RJR as a student. Although we live in the Tabor district, our children chose to attend RJR. In 2007 when RJR received the MSP federal grant to become an arts magnet school my oldest child was a junior and my youngest was in kindergarten. At a PTSA board meeting one night, Dr. Paschal and Angel Caudell presented the vision for the arts magnet school. I was there as a PTSA board member, and applied for one of the part time positions on staff. I've been working at RJR ever since.
How did what you had heard about RJR match what you actually found at RJR?
Reynolds is a much different school now than when I attended, and when we were known as society hill. When our oldest was looking at high schools we were told that RJR was going downhill and that we should consider the new high school that was opening that year (Reagan), our neighborhood school (Tabor), or a private school. When we toured, though, we found that RJR was full of passionate teachers, interesting students, and a diverse student body that was being used as the strength I believe it is. I was afraid that once I started to work there I would see “the warts” and would not be impressed. I was wrong. My children have thrived at Reynolds. Of course I see the things that can be improved, and I see the people working together trying to improve them for all students. I see the community of learners, of teachers, of administrators, of support staff, and of parents/alums/community members working together.
What is an average day at school like for you?
There is really no average day for me. I am funded as a 75% employee, but I am at school nearly every day all day (and at nearly every PTSA board meeting, SIT meeting, arts events, school-wide event, and many of the athletic events). My days include meetings( with RJR staff, students, parents, community organizations), writing grants, driving school buses to field trips, touring interested families, creating materials for recruitment and marketing, writing arts integrated lesson plans, helping with school-wide events (Festivals, performances, Class Day, Thanksgiving Assembly, Graduation, etc.), networking with community organizations to plan experiences that benefit students and the community groups, working with teachers and support staff etc. I manage many social media sites for the school (RJ Reynolds Arts on Facebook, RJRarts on Twitter, rjrarts.weebly.com for our blog), and I post something new most days. I'm also in the halls during class changes, helping to monitor and making relationships with students, meeting with students who need assistance with something, working with students on college questions/applications (especially arts intensive students), working with teachers to get the supplies/connections they need to make their lessons, engaging and relating to the magnet focus that is selected each year (this year is "Access," last year was "Innovation"). Because I have no daily classroom duties this year, I am used for testing and other needs frequently.
How would you size up the RJR student body?
These students are so interesting! However you define diversity, we have it represented at Reynolds. And the students have so much to say about our world. They want to make connections, to learn to make the world a better place. At the same time, they are teenagers (and many of them have very difficult home lives) - they are angsty, need motivation and connection, and thrive on relationships. I love being around them, and I learn from them every day. I feel privileged when a student confines in me or completes a creative project that shows a part of themselves. I'm so very proud of them.
What is your family life like?
I am the middle of three children and grew up in Winston Salem. I married my high school sweetheart (John Morris) who works at Novant Health and teaches at Guilford College. We have four children (Ali -Class of 2009…a teacher in D.C., Justin - Class of 2012…a musician in Asheville, Rachel - Class of 2016…completed her first year at UNC Asheville and studying psychology, and Maddie - Class of 2020…fully participates in the arts magnet program at RJR). We lived in Greensboro, Asheboro, Ann Arbor, Washington, DC, and Decatur, GA before coming home to Winston-Salem. We love raising a family here and love being close to our own families.
Why did you go into teaching as a career?
I have wanted to teach as long as I can remember. I love being around children and started working with elementary aged students. I studied elementary education and mathematics during my undergraduate work at UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Greensboro. I worked with third graders who were at least two years below grade level, and children at Amos Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital before coming to Reynolds. I worked on a Master's degree in Special Education and Administration, and taught in preschool elementary and middle schools. While my husband was in law school and our children were young, I stayed home to raise our family, volunteered and worked part time in preschools. I'm glad to have returned to education as a career. I love the relationships that are built through education; I love helping people discover their interests and talents (and helping them make plans to pursue them). When I needed to become certified in something at the high school level in order to keep the job at RJR in the Arts Magnet Office, I took the Math Praxis. At times during the past 10 years at RJR, I have been a math tutor and has taught Math 1, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry when needed.
Why did you want to teach as well as be RJR's Director of the Arts Magnet Program?
When Reynolds became an Arts Magnet school, I had four children in four schools and was very active in all of them. I was ready to be able to put my efforts into one school and return to education as a career rather than a volunteer position. Magnet schools have Academic Excellence and Diversity/Equity at the center of their organizational structures. These are passions of mine. Although I grew up dancing at the Academy of Dance Arts, playing the violin under the tutelage of Minnie Lou Raper, and attending community theater, I did not think of myself as an artist. I was hired as part of the Arts Magnet Team at first to work with community engagement, student service learning, and arts integrated math/science lesson planning. I have grown and learned through my time with the magnet program that we are ALL artists, and that being creative and making connections is part of what everyone is called to do.
What are your goals and aspirations?
I hope to be at Reynolds in the roll of Magnet Director for many more years. When I'm ready to slow down from daily work in the school, though, I would like to either work with other schools who are using the magnet approach or the arts as a school reform model OR work to the local nonprofit. I currently work through the state of North Carolina's A+ Schools Program with schools across the nation who are part of the longest running organization using the arts for school reform. I am a regional liaison in North Carolina and worked with schools during the summer training. I am also one of 20 national merit readers for the Magnet Schools of America organization, working with other magnet schools who write merit award applications as a way towards continuous improvement. I present at local state and national conferences each year. Next year I will co-present with Debbie Randolph from SECCA in New Orleans and Wilmington about our collaborative project last year that involved 2200 RJR students going to the Dispatches exhibit and creatively responding to the current events involved in that exhibit.
Anything else you want to tell the RJR alumni?
Thank you for all your support and your good thoughts. We appreciate you. Come to see us. Tour the school. Organize the school tour as part of your reunion weekend. We hear some negative things about education in North Carolina these days and funding is down and challenges are up. However great things are happening RJR and we'd love to involve you in any way you would like.