Humans of Cranston is a recurring column showcasing the stories of Cranston community members’ community involvement, diversity, and unique life perspectives.

Brian Flinn is the Assistant Principal of Academic Affairs at Cranston High School West, West’s liaison for the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center, and a Cranston resident of over twenty years.

I got into education because I thought I wanted to be an attorney. I went to Boston College and after, I did a year of volunteering with a program called the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I taught in Harlem, and then did a second year out in Portland, Oregon. ... In Portland, I worked as a paralegal at the Public Defender’s Office; I was a volunteer for a year then I got hired on. Anyways, I thought I wanted to be an attorney, but then learning about the system and how people ended up in the criminal system, and an attorney saying, “don’t be a lawyer!” you know (laughs), I decided I wanted to go into education, and so I came back and went to graduate school in Boston to get a master’s in ed, and then I started teaching history. I taught for a year in the Boston area and then I came down here and started teaching history at Cranston East.

I became Assistant Principal there after ten, eleven, twelve years. I was there for about three or four years as Assistant Principal and then I went to Bain Middle School as Assistant Principal, and then I came here ... It seems like a lifetime ago, but it also doesn’t, because it seems like last week that I was thirty years old! I think the best part of the job is the people, the kids, the adults, the stories they have, and just trying to help people out. Trying to help people out with either today’s issue or bigger issues, helping teaching, not making [teachers'] jobs easier but more trying to help them do better at what they do, and for students, to help them get through these parts of their lives to the next parts, just telling them, “Keep your eye on the prize!”

I work out of the school counseling office, the guidance department, and Academic Affairs covers curriculum issues and trying to help kids out thinking about the world of work as well as “college and career readiness." There’s a piece, too, with the Career and Tech Center; as the headperson that oversees West, I’m sort of onsite there. I just work with the teachers – I'm not telling a construction teacher how to hammer, but more just like helping him with ordering supplies, or like, today there was a big what they call the Skills USA Competition with the Career and Tech Program. It’s like their Olympics, so like 150 kids here went today, and I just do the coordination ... the teachers did most of it themselves, I just try to help them keep other stuff out of the way so they can focus on the kids, like arranging the buses or making sure that classes are covered, just pushing things out of people’s ways so they can do their job.

I think my relationship with Cranston being a Cranston educator is, you know, with my kids going to Cranston Public Schools, you’re in it to win it, because your kid’s a part of the system, and your neighbor’s kid’s a part of the system, and you definitely want to do the best you can to help anyone out. But also, you’re a vested interest because you live here, you see kids at the supermarket, it’s everywhere... It’s a town of 70,000, but you see everyone everywhere, and I’ve got my involvement through my kids or their sporting activities or their involvement with other activities they did through Cranston, and you have more skin in the game when you’re in it. ... You just feel like it’s more personal, you know. It’s your neighbors’ kids.

I think there’s a lot of vigor and vitality here. Like, kids have got great ideas, they want to go places, they want to, not to sound stereotypical, but change the world! I think a lot of the kids want to do important things, and I think it’s great that the school system and the community are able to get the kids to where they want to be. You know, around this time of the year, kids hear back from colleges, and not all of the kids get into college, or they don’t get their first choice, and that’s just part of life – you'll go somewhere, it may not be your first choice – but I think we position the kids to give it the best shot.

The second season of this project has been made possible by the Rhode Island Department of Health and the efforts of the OneCranston Health Equity Zone of Comprehensive Community Action, Inc. in partnership with the Cranston Herald and Timothy McFate. The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of Humans of Cranston participants do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the aforementioned parties. The presented stories are voluntarily provided, unpaid, and given verbatim except for correcting grammatical errors.  

Want to nominate a Cranston resident to be featured? Email JB at jfulbright@comcap.org.