Jamie Hawkins: How One Woman from Reno is Making the Whole World Smile

Jamie Hawkins is a middle school English and Social Studies teacher in Reno and immediate past Nevada state president of Alpha Delta Kappa (AΔK), an international honorary organization of women educators. She is also a fierce cleft advocate. Come along with her as she shares the story of how she combined her passions for family, education, and doing good to get teachers across the Silver State fired up to raise awareness of clefts and transform children’s lives through Smile Train.

My journey to Smile Train began in Las Vegas, where I was born and raised. My mom was also a teacher and AΔK was a big part of her life. When I moved to Reno and became a teacher myself, I joined the sorority as an excuse to spend more time with her. Las Vegas and Reno are 500 miles apart. I missed her.

It turned out, being active in AΔK made me feel close to Mom even when we weren’t at meetings together. My parents taught me that our job in life is to make the world better, so we always have to be ready to do whatever we can to help. As a sister, I came to see that Mom was so passionate about AΔK because they share the same values. The whole sorority exists as a way for teachers to get together and make the world a better place for children outside of the classroom, through the strength that comes with our experiences. Specifically, our three facets are altruism, excellence in education, and world understanding.  

“Biennium” isn’t a word that most people know, but my students all do. It means a period of two years, and when I was elected to serve a biennium, or two-year term, as president of my state in 2020, it meant, for me, another point of cross-state and cross-generational connection with my mother.

As it turned out, that was just the beginning of the deepened family connection my biennium would bring.

Luck Be a Teacher

The next year, my niece, Frankie, was born with a cleft. From her first moments, she needed so many special devices and protocols just to eat and breathe and do so many other seemingly little things so she could weigh enough for surgery. She got her first one, to heal her cleft lip, when she was six weeks old, then her second, to heal her palate, when she was about eight months. 

It was never lost on me how fortunate my family was (and still is!) to be able to afford everything Frankie needed to survive and thrive — and I now knew that included not only multiple surgeries, but also years of nutritional support, speech therapy, orthodontics, and so much else. I couldn’t imagine how different her life would be if she didn’t have access to all of that. Yet I also knew that that was the sad reality for so many other babies just like her all around the world.

And that I was in a position to help them. Frankie taught me that building world understanding, AΔK’s third pillar, absolutely means teaching people the truth about clefts and using all of our resources to give a smile and a future to every child in need. 

I did a lot of Googling for cleft organizations and came away deeply impressed with Smile Train because of their fantastic model: Unlike other cleft charities, they put the vast majority of their money into training local medical teams around the world to provide surgery and other necessary care at the exact time kids need it. That keeps overhead small and gives every donation a bigger impact.

My sisters were immediately onboard for a big fundraising push.

Nothing Trivial About It

If there’s one thing I love almost as much as being involved in AΔK, it’s trivia nights. No one knows more random knowledge than an English and Social Studies teacher. There are six AΔK chapters in Nevada, so when I became state president, I made a goal of raising enough money for each chapter to symbolically fund one cleft surgery. One of the ways that I did this was by inviting my Nevada sisters to participate in my local trivia league’s Challenge for Charity night for the chance to win $2,000 for Smile Train. In the end, all three northern Nevada chapters were represented, and I made sure we only had the best on our team.

A few women came up to me and said, “I’ll be there if you need more bodies,” and I told them, “No, I am playing to win!” I also pulled in some of my friends from my regular trivia team to be ringers. Did I mention I am serious about trivia and raising money for Smile Train?

We met our goal for that night in one fell swoop. I considered it a huge win, even though my team came in second.

I wasn’t going to sit on that momentum. We had to keep going. That trivia night was the big fundraiser, but sisters organized smaller ones, too. Teachers were selling quilted potholders and other handmade goods at sorority events across the state for $10-15, with all proceeds going to Smile Train. A few women even came up to a booth I was at and said, “I actually don’t need to buy anything, but can I just donate money?”

I said, “Of course we take money!” Then I took the opportunity to tell them more about clefts and Smile Train. For us, every moment is a teaching moment.

My goal was to raise $1,500 by the end of my biennium. I’m proud to say we smashed past it in just my first four months!

The Things We Get to Do

Frankie has been my constant source of inspiration throughout this whole journey. She is in kindergarten now and loves to dance and do gymnastics. She goes to speech therapy, too, and has since she was three — she sees that as just part of life, just another one of the things she gets to do. We don’t make a big deal about her cleft, and I don’t think she really even knows she had one. But she’s still going in for aftercare and check-ups even though her surgeries were nearly four years ago.  

That fact alone fuels my passion for Smile Train. 

The fact is, children have no say over where or how they were born. So, if you’re fortunate to be in a position to help someone live a better, healthier, happier life, you should take advantage of it. Sometimes people think they have to drop everything and travel across the world to make a difference, but as a teacher, an aunt, and a member of an international philanthropic organization, I can tell you: Teaching one person one new thing can also make a huge difference. It can literally change their life. So can parlaying your passions into funds for kids in need or giving your niece a smile after a check-up.

Although my biennium as Nevada state president is up, I’m already planning big new ways to get the sorority and others in my life involved, and further teach the world about clefts and the power of a smile.

There’s always something good you can do for others. What will you do in the coming year?