Fadlallah with a student.

DETROIT — Dilapidated and moldy classrooms and poor student achievement have afflicted the Detroit Public Schools for decades. Recently, many Detroit school teachers are opting not to show up to work, protesting low wages.

Despite a plethora of problems troubling the quality of education in the city, one teacher has risen to the challenge of instructing impoverished and underserved kids – and has been recognized nationally for it.

Rima Fadlallah, 23, is the recipient of the 2016 Sue Lehmann Teaching and Learning Fellowship, a two-year program of Teach for America that distinguishes four educators from around the nation who have excelled in teaching and inspiring success in students from deprived schools.

Teach for America states that in one semester, Fadlallah’s students improved an average of two points on the ACT.

“Rima sets clear goals for students, provides them with continuous feedback, and constructs plans to meet these goals with her students,” a statement on the website reads.

Fadlallah, a high school English teacher at University Prep Science and Math High School in Detroit, said her father was an educator in Dearborn for 30 years. He was also her principal when she was in high school.

Her father’s dedication to education in the community inspired Fadlallah to join the program.

“Watching what he was doing in championing education for students in Dearborn and the Arab community really inspired me,” she said. “Especially and unfortunately in the light of a lot of educators not having the same vision for us because we were Arab students.”

Because of that, she said she was exposed to the racial dynamics at a young age, which gave her a unique lens to look through as she approached college.

With the help of her English teacher, whom she calls a role model, Fadlallah said she took on the feat of taking college classes every year during high school. Her teacher taught her to recognize her potential.

“She got us to really think deeply about who we were, who we wanted to be and how we can get there,” Fadlallah said.

As she entered the program, Fadlallah became exposed to the struggles Detroit schools and its students face – poor funding and low expectations.

As a teacher, she witnessed problems within the bureaucracy and politics in the school’s administration. High turnover rates and inconsistency of instructor attendance trickled down to classrooms, negatively impacting student learning.

She was faced with difficult undertakings. Fadlallah said she knew she couldn’t control funding and internal politics, but she was able to promote the idea that students can learn anything, regardless of their race.

Her goal for the kids in her classroom was to be the educator that her English teacher was to her.

To Fadlallah, Teach for America’s award is a recognition of her students’ abilities and a stab at the notion that Detroit youth can reach great potential and be successful.

Ultimately, she aims to champion educational equality and promote an interest from Arab Americans to have a vested interest in communities outside their own.

“I wanted to change the perception of Detroit Black youth and I want my community to question what role they should be playing in education,” she said.

The fellowship granted Fadlallah a $5,000 award, which she said she will use to pay off some debt and celebrate with her students.

After she leaves the program, Fadlallah said she plans to stay in the field of education, but not teaching.

She said she sees her career in education leadership, where she could create change from the top to more effectively improve the city’s school system.