Education is the key

Teresa Jones and Anja Thiessen have very different backgrounds, but they both see education as a way to uproot entrenched poverty in the Mississippi Delta. Jones is from a small, unincorporated community about 25 miles east of the Mississippi River. Thiessen was raised near a different river, the Rhine, which flows past her hometown of Bensheim, Germany. Both women have helped build new education programs that focus on Delta youth. Jones’ efforts have focused on her hometown of Holly Bluff,  located about 20 miles west of Yazoo City between the Delta National Forest and the Panther Swamp Wildlife Refuge. Thiessen is located in Coahoma County, which is about 70 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee, and part of the Clarksdale Micropolitan Statistical Area.