Thea Bowman Leadership Academy believes that educated citizens emerge as the true leaders of a community. Letter From Ball State The Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is named after Thea Bowman, a Mississippi- born African American Roman Catholic nun whose genius, poise and leadership have been an inspiration to all who know her life. The Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is dedicated to living up to the stellar quality of the person it identifies and for the community constancy it represents. The purpose of the Thea Bowman Leadership Academy is to provide a high quality academic option within the public schools. The Academy has a rigorous and challenging curriculum that provides children with the academic and citizenship skills to better enable them to succeed as lifelong learners and to prepare them for community leadership.  Thea Bowman Leadership Academy in its sixth year of operation has over 1400 students, grade K-12, a waiting list of well over a hundred, a staff of sixty and an accomplished Director with over ten years of administrative experience. Besides the Core classes students are able to study Spanish, art, music, physical education, and computers. An enthusiastic basketball team produced its first win at its first game! Thea Bowman Leadership Academy Charter School was authorized by Ball State University to be opened by the organizer, the Drexel Foundation for Educational Excellence, Inc.