Lillian Harper
Educator hopes to be role model
Lillian Harper took a different path in life, but through the experience she hopes to encourage others to pursue their dreams.
Harper currently serves as the assistant superintendent for curriculum and federal programs for the Malvern School District.
In her job, she oversees Title money that the district receives from the state. She is responsible for curriculum needs and making changes as required by state leaders.
She said the best aspect of her job is “knowing that I can make a difference for so many students… whether that is a curricular need, an emotional need, whatever that is I open myself up to the students so that they can approach me and that if they need me, they know I am there for them.”
She noted that she tries to be active across the district, so students will know her and feel comfortable with her.
Before working in Malvern beginning in 2012, Harper was a teacher in Arkadelphia for seven years. When her husband started a job here, her family moved to this community. Harper’s husband, Domenique, currently works for Arauco.
Harper said she decided to become a educator from her experience with a teacher in first grade.
“She really influenced me early on and I knew I wanted to be a teacher,” she said.
When though she knew what you wanted to do in life, Harper did not attend college after graduating high school. Instead, she was a nontraditional student.
When she was 23 years old and had a job that she hated, she decided to pursue her dream. She then attended Henderson State University.
Through this experience, Harper said, she can be a mentor for students.
“I don’t mind telling any of the students my story,” she said.
Last year while observing a classroom, she had the opportunity to talk with a student who did not think she could afford to attend college directly after high school.
“She was amazed that I had made it where I had and I wasn’t a traditional student,”
Harper said. I think that it gave her hope to know that even though she wasn’t going to college immediately, that she could do it.”
As a nontraditional student, Harper feels she was able to better connect with her students.
By the time she became a teacher, she had already had two of her children.
“As a mother, I have always taken the mother role with my students. I would always tell parents ‘I will always treat your kids the same way I would treat my own.’”
Harper and her husband have three children. Amarria Harper, 20, is attending Henderson State University; Domenique Harper Jr., 17, is a senior at Malvern High School and Gaibrielle Harper, 13, is a eighth grader at Malvern Middle School.
As a educator, Harper has taught third and fourth grade students. Even though she primarily taught math and science, she has taught all subjects throughout her career, she said.
Harper has served in her current position for four years.
As a school district administrator, she is in a maledominated position, she said adding that she hopes this can be another way for her to be a role model for others.
“Being a woman where I am has changed the perception. It gives women the confidence to know that they can get to the district level positions,” she said. “Being a woman in this position shows other women that they can do it.”
Her ultimate goal is to eventually become a superintendent.
Harper mentioned that the Malvern School District embodies its motto of “passion, pride and excellence.”
“I think that my coming here just instilled those that much more in me,” she said.
In her free time, Harper said she enjoys spending time with her family and shoe shopping with her daughters.
“My life revolves around my children,” she said.
She also helps her husband with his business. Her husband owns his food truck, That’s Sho Good BBQ.
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