Beyond Circumstance.”
These words appear everywhere at the Boyce L. Ansley School in Atlanta.
They’re written on the walls, the website, and even the teachers’ shirts: a reminder that adversity doesn’t determine your potential. For Chas Choran AB ’15, AB ’15, the motto is also deeply personal.
The Ansley School helps children experiencing homelessness build a future through education. As assistant principal and director of literacy, Choran is a big driver of that mission, and she wears the words “beyond circumstance” as a point of pride. But long before Choran heard that phrase at Ansley, she already understood its meaning.
Choran’s mother dropped out of college to raise her, and her father died when she was 17. Those experiences led to periods of housing and financial instability for her family and now shape the urgency she brings to Ansley’s mission.
“We didn’t have a lot growing up,” Choran says. “But my mom raised me with a strong sense of ethics, morality, and purpose. That’s a big part of what I want to give back to the children at Ansley.”
The First Step
Choran attended the University of Georgia on a full ride through the Zell Miller Scholarship. She double majored in communication studies and sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, drawn to how institutions shape lived experience, but her passion was clearly education. She interned at camp that supported students with a disabilities, shadowed teachers at a special education school, and volunteered with a KIPP public charter school during an IMPACT spring break trip focused on homelessness and poverty.
“I think I have a passion for teaching children to use the tools they already have within themselves.”
– CHAS CHORAN, TEACHER, ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL, AND DIRECTOR OF LITERACY AT THE BOYCE L. ANSLEY SCHOOL
The KIPP mission—bringing tuition-free education to historically underserved communities—stayed with her after graduation. Choran later spent eight years at a KIPP school as a teacher and debate coach. She took students who were used to being underestimated, even by themselves, and she helped them win awards in major debate competitions across the state.
She describes this period as “one of the most important chapters of my story,” a moment that solidified her approach to education. In her final year as a KIPP teacher, Choran was named one of their Harriet Ball Teachers of the Year and recognized as one of their Top Performing Teachers in the nation.
“I think I have a passion for teaching children to use the tools they already have within themselves,” she says.
A Way Forward
Choran’s passion led her to develop a wide range of skills. Now in her third year at Ansley, Choran teaches classes, manages attendance, and coaches the literacy teachers. She also serves as assistant principal and director of literacy.
“If you want a village, you have to be a villager,” Choran says. “That means that you don’t stick to your one role. You do what is necessary for the school to succeed.”
The Ansley School began in a church basement and has grown to include a food pantry, a clothing closet, and therapy services for parents and students. As the school grows, so do Choran’s aspirations. She was selected as a 2025-26 Georgia Education Policy Fellow and is using her capstone project on the science of reading legislation in Georgia to affect policy discussion from Atlanta to Washington, D.C.
“I once had to write an essay about my dream school, and I dreamed of a school that was the anchor for its people,” she says.
Choran believes Ansley is becoming that dream.
“The thing we provide that is almost more transformative than an education is community and a future beyond circumstance.”