It’s six am. As students throughout the metro area shuffle out of bed, the school sleeps under a baby-blue dawn, its silent halls waiting dutifully for their arrival. A few feet away from its locked doors, Ms. Keysha is already making breakfast sandwiches in the Farmhouse, preparing for a long day of appeasing hungry teenagers which begins the moment they step off the bus.
Ms. Keysha doesn’t just bring punctuality to the job – she brings herself. With an infectious smile, a bubbly hello, and a razor-sharp memory, she transforms what could be a simple transaction into a moment of connection.
“I think my favorite part is memorizing everyone’s name,” Ms. Keysha said of her job. She doesn’t stop at names. She knows that Jaidyn Smalls ‘27 takes her sandwiches eggless, and that for Imani Heath-Cooper ‘27, it’s turkey or bust. An eggless and a turkey await both of these students each morning, because Ms. Keysha remembers. Memorizing names and orders isn’t required of her, but it’s a challenge she is happy to take on.
“I like when you guys come in and I know what you want. I think it makes it a little more personal,” Ms. Keysha said. “I like making sure you guys are happy… [and] the most interesting part is getting to know everyone…and knowing what everyone’s like.”
That extra care goes a long way. When Smalls and Heath-Cooper pick up their custom orders every morning, they leave not only with a sandwich, but with a smile.
“Ms. Keysha is very lively, and she is always joking around. Always. Even if she had a bad night, you would never be able to tell because she’ll still come to work happy and make sure everyone is okay,” Heath-Cooper said. “Me and Ms. Keysha are really close… I talk [to her] about, like, you know, friendships, drama, boy drama.”
Smalls enjoys a similar experience, saying, “She was really amazing and accepting as soon as I met her…she has great advice…I’m not really good at taking advice, but I’ll listen.”
Smalls and Heath-Cooper are far from the only students to find a friend in Ms. Keysha. “[Students] come in and they share their frustrations, [sometimes it’s] when you guys are testing,” Ms. Keysha said. “I don’t want to single anybody out because I love everybody. Everybody gives me something different.”
Of course, working with teenagers isn’t always easy. Regarding students’ occasional bad behavior, Ms. Keysha said, “To be put in a position when I have to yell or raise my voice … I ain’t too crazy about that. I don’t want to yell at no-one.”
However, it is the bonds that Ms. Keysha has built with the student body that counter this challenge. “For the most part, I’ve established a little relationship with most of you guys,” Ms. Keysha said. “So … normally, everybody works together.”
Demonstrating the solidarity that Ms. Keysha described, Heath-Cooper said, “[students] should be more respectful because all Ms. Keysha wants to do is just help people and give people what they need. And I think you can’t expect someone to treat you well if you don’t treat them… well, too.”
The desire of kind students to show appreciation for Ms.Keysha’s hard work goes beyond Heath-Cooper’s advice. Last year, members of the class of 2025 surprised her with a parting gift.
“They took me to where you guys go for Meeting for Worship. I was just sitting there for like a second. I’m like, what’s going on?” Ms. Keysha said, describing the memory. “And then they called my name and they surprised me and told me that they put me in a yearbook.”
Greatly appreciative of the warmth that students show her, Ms. Keysha listed this as one of her favorite AFS memories. Others include the annual maypole ceremony, and the Upper School’s 2024 production of Urinetown.
Touching once again on the subject of students’ occasional misbehavior, Ms. Keysha expressed that she regards it with empathy.
“At the end of the day, you all are teenagers and young adults, so, of course, you don’t have everything figured out,” she said.
Reflecting on her own teenage years, Ms. Keysha said that her advice for students is to “have fun,” which she says she had her “fair share of” during her time at Roxborough High School. Though she wouldn’t describe her adolescent self as shy, she credits her participation in basketball and track with providing valuable enhancements to her social life.
“I’m an only child, so I’m used to being by myself,” Ms. Keysha said. “Playing sports gave me an extended group of people to be around.”
After graduating equipped with friends aplenty and confidence built on the court, Ms. Keysha was ready to make one of her fondest memories: her first big road trip with friends to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Since then, the pastel Southern shoretown has become a repeat destination for her.
While clocked out, Ms. Keysha spends her time crocheting, cooking, crafting with beads, watching movies, and taking daytrips to cut her own sunflowers at a farm in New Jersey.
She dreams of retirement, saying, “I wanna move to Florida, like everyone else,” with a laugh.
It may be long after any of us graduate, but this serene future in the sunshine state surely awaits her— because one thing about Ms. Keysha? She doesn’t give up.
“Never quit,” she said, when asked to share a grounding belief that has pushed her through life. “Always something on the other side.”
