Janiya Davis and Charles Easley will be the first to acknowledge that four years ago they never expected to be attending a Catholic high school let alone graduating from one.
And yet on Saturday, June 4, the two seniors accepted their diplomas, moved the tassel on their graduation caps from one side to the other and flashed a smile befitting their accomplishment.
At that moment, they could call themselves graduates – and now alumni – of Columbus Bishop Ready High School.
“The diploma looks really good,” Davis said.
Their stories represent the power and potential that a Catholic school education provides when the opportunity is made available to young people from all backgrounds, even those who have not had the chance to attend a Catholic elementary school.
Both students trace the successful completion of their high school education at Ready to the Run the Race Club founded to help underprivileged children on Columbus’ west side in the Hilltop area by Rachel Muha.
Muha started the club to honor her youngest son, Brian, a Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School graduate who was murdered in 1999 while a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
“The Brian Muha Foundation has been supporting inner-city students who want to go to Bishop Ready,” Muha said. “We have helped five other Run the Racers graduate from there, (and) we will have five Run the Racers at Ready next year – two freshmen, one sophomore and two juniors. We are so glad that we can help this way.”
Davis began attending Run the Race Club with her cousins as a 7-year-old to participate in activities there. She said her family also benefited from the center. Eventually, as Davis grew older, she was given job opportunities to help with younger children who came there.
When it came time to go to high school, Muha encouraged Davis to attend Ready and, through generous supporters, provided some financial assistance to make that happen.
“Ms. Rachel Muha wanted me and Charles to come here,” Davis said. “She thought it would be a really good thing for us because the surrounding schools are not the best options. She wanted a better education for us.
“I will say I really did not think it was a good idea. But, after four years, I feel like it really has been a good thing for me. I’m glad she wanted me to go here because I think it was a great experience, and I learned a lot. I became a different person. I’ve grown a lot.”
When Davis arrived at Bishop Ready four years ago, she admitted that she had trouble adjusting to the academic and personal disciple required in a Catholic school and that she’d never experienced in her education to that point. There were some rough spots with teachers and administrators at first, but then she began to understand the expectations and adapted.
“Where I came from, it’s different from here because of my behavior and how I used to act when I used to go to different schools,” she said. “Being here has made me act in a different way and know how to act in front of others.”
As a freshman, she said she felt out of place at first coming from a different environment than other students (about 70 percent matriculate from Catholic elementary schools to Ready), and it took time to adapt. Academically, she struggled initially and had to take summer courses during that first year.
“It was a big adjustment, but then I got it down for the most part,” she said. “I used to think that lunch detention was fun in middle school, but once I got hit with Saturday school here, it was not fun.”
Assistant principal Rocco Fumi recalled those early struggles and the transformation the two students made.
“It’s so rewarding when students come in and they’re a little guarded and unsure about the place, and then you see the day when we look at each other and say, ‘They got it,’” Fumi said.
“We understand that there are going to be some bumps along the way, but we were not going to give up on them. We hope they didn’t give up on us. And it’s just so rewarding to see where they were and where they are now.”
“If you listen to their stories, I think the one thing that stands out is their growth from where they were when they came in here,” Ready principal Matt Brickner said. “Not coming from one of our traditional feeder schools, that path is different because the expectations are different.
“There were struggles when they first came in, but seeing where they are now as students academically and spiritually from where they started … it’s just a feel-good story – just the kind of people that they are, who serve in leadership roles and are very involved in the community.
“Charles and Janai both made Bishop Ready a better place in their four years here with what they’ve been able to do.”
Davis, who participated in track and field and cheerleading while at Ready, also developed a stronger sense of faith in the school’s Catholic environment.
“When I first came here, I really didn’t play attention enough to my faith life,” she said. “I have actually learned a lot with our religion classes. Being here is basically like going to church.”
Easley’s story resembles his classmate’s. He started going to the Run the Race Club in third grade and quickly blossomed there under the guidance of Muha and many volunteers who mentored him and helped set up academic tutoring that allowed him to enroll at Bishop Ready.
“My freshman year, it was really hard academic-wise going from public school to Catholic school,” he said. “Me and Mr. Fumi, we spent a lot of time together because I was always in trouble. My behavior coming to Catholic school was unacceptable.
“He really helped change me because I was scared to keep going to see him, and he was like, ‘Charles, you need to change.’ We bumped heads a lot the first two years.”
Turning in assignments on time and reading literature were just two of the challenges.
“Our summer reading book freshman year was 600 pages, and I was like, ‘Who are these people who think they’re going to make us read over the summer?’” Easley said jokingly. “I didn’t like to read, but I really did enjoy reading those books, and I learned a lot. Reading was my struggle point from kindergarten, but not anymore.”
Easley, who is Catholic and was involved in campus ministry and altar serving at Ready, developed an interest in theater at a young age and writes plays that have been performed at the Run the Race Club. In high school, his love for the stage continued despite the challenges presented when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and canceled shows.
The following year, the school staged a show with a limited cast of nine, and then this spring returned to a full cast for a performance of Little Mermaid.
“To see so many people back at theater, I still have faith in the arts that we’re going to come back really, really strong,” he said.
The Run the Race Club has assisted him with acting and voice lessons, and he has participated in children’s theater performances outside of school while continuing to help direct small plays at Run the Race. This summer, he’s directing Cinderella there.
“They’ve been there with me at Run the Race, and I said, ‘How can I give back to them and the community?’” Easley said. “And when Rachel asked whether I could direct a show (Cinderella), I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
Looking back, Davis and Easley can’t help but chuckle when they recall their freshmen selves compared with who they are today. Along the way, they met new friends, endured the disruptions that the pandemic presented and matured into young adults who will begin college in the fall after earning generous scholarships.
“We wrote a letter at the end of freshman year, and we got it back at the end of senior year, and I was reading it and it was like, ‘Wow, so much has changed,’” Easley said. “The people I didn’t like in that letter I love now. And I definitely think the Ready events brought us a lot closer together.”
Davis is headed to the University of Akron, where she plans to pursue an associate degree as an emergency medical technician and a bachelor’s degree in emergency management. Easley is staying in Columbus and attending Capital University to major in education with a minor in theater.
“This is only the beginning, not the end,” Easley said. “There’s a lot of kids that really look up to us now.
“I’ll never forget there was a kid who was like, ‘What? You’re 18 and do all of this.’ And he’s like, ‘I wish I could.’ I said, ‘You can. You’ve just got to apply yourself.’ It’s a lot of discipline that I learned here.
“Getting that diploma, that was the first step. There’s going to be many more steps and trials and challenges in the next four years, but I know that I can always come back here, and this will always be home. We’re family.”
“We can see that they’re now just embedded in the Ready community, and they’re going to be proud alums,” Fumi said. “And we are proud of them.”
