Power couple Akbar and Sheridan Cook became international celebrities when they were contestants on the 33rd season of reality TV’s “The Amazing Race.”
But they already were local heroes.
Akbar, the innovative principal of Newark’s West Side High School whose fans include Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah, and Sheridan, a Newark public school teacher, live in the Martinsville neighborhood of Bridgewater with their three children.
Akbar, author of the 2022 best-selling book Focus on the Love: A Transformative Approach to Organizational Leadership, has set up FriendsofWestSide.org to involve the community in his activities.
Akbar and Sheridan may have lost the 2022 race, but they definitely have won our hearts. Akbar talks to City Lifestyle Bridgewater about what drives him as an educator and how he uses the media to help further his cause of helping children in underserved communities.
Q: You have gotten a lot of publicity for your work. Some articles have even gone so far as to call you a rock star.
A: Prior to “The Amazing Race,” I was the rock star of the family, but after “The Amazing Race,” Sheridan became the rock star. She’s afraid of heights, and when everyone got to witness how scared she was scaling the mountain and bungee jumping, she became Wonder Woman.
Q: Your programs at West Side High School are considered ground-breaking. How did you come up with the idea of Lights On!, which keeps the school open after hours and during the summer so students can use it as a community and recreation center?
A: The school year of 2014–15 opened with the death of a young lady, and another boy was then killed. With those two deaths in my first year, it was like “Scary Movie 2”: It seemed everything bad that was happening was happening in the West Ward. I felt helpless. Then, another baby—the toughest kid I ever knew—was killed two weeks before graduation. I grew up going to a Boys Club, and I decided to open the school up that summer. The first day, I had 40 people, and that grew to 150. I don’t know what role Lights On! played, but there were no acts of violence in the West Ward that summer. Now, we also do the program on Fridays throughout the year.
Q: What effect has the program had on the lives of the students and the community at large? Can you give specific examples of kids whose lives have been turned around?
A: There are several. Alfonzo Anderson, who was gang-related and a great basketball player, is the first one of my babies to come to mind. I love this kid; I had him for three years. When he graduated, I called a friend and got him on a junior varsity team at a junior college in Cheyenne, Wyoming. When I found out he was getting homesick and thinking of quitting, I hopped on a plane and drove to the campus. He graduated with an associate’s degree in his third year; the school loved him so much it gave him a second scholarship. Now he’s in a historically black college in Oklahoma City, and I’ve got a job waiting for him when he graduates.
Q: More recently, you made headlines when you installed a washer and dryer on campus and started stocking essentials such as detergent and toothpaste for students. What prompted this, and what feedback have you received from students?
A: I found out kids were staying home because their uniforms were dirty. Not only didn’t they have washing machines, they also didn’t even have a bar of soap to clean them by hand. The feedback is in the stats: Our average daily attendance rate is now 90 percent. And I get calls from companies around the world that want to donate detergent to us.
Q: You set up The Ellen DeGeneres Urban Farm after you got $110,000 after appearing on her show three times. How did you come up with the idea, and how exactly does it involve and help students?
A: It really wasn’t planned. I got 1,500 boxes of fresh produce from Jersey Cares, and I put the word out on social media, and 700 people from all over the state showed up. Now, working with partners, we offer not only produce and dry goods but also hot meals. The babies at the school can access the food any time, and there are specific hours for the public. We’ve set up about two dozen vegetable plots for the babies to take care of, and we’re building a greenhouse.
Q: In addition to your principal duties, Akbar, you also coach the basketball team. How does that change your relationship with the students?
A: Basketball has always been a part of my life—I met Sheridan on the court when we were students at Florida Atlantic. And I take this role seriously: I’m the guy who drives the players home three by three in my car so they don’t have to wait at the bus stop late at night after a game. The basketball kids made me cool to the rest of the students.
Q. When you and Sheridan play hoops, who wins?
A. Sheri is a baller—she often outscores people we play against. She’s the athlete of the family, but she can’t beat me, and I’ll never let her beat me.
Q: This brings us to your most public athletic event: “The Amazing Race.” Why did the two of you decide to enter this grueling competition?
A: They approached me, and at first, I wanted to take Sheri’s brother, then my son, but they wanted her. We didn’t have to audition because this was supposed to be a season with inspirational people competing. The $1 million prize, of course, was in the back of my mind, but we had never been out of the country. So this was more about showing our babies the world.
Q: You are very busy people and parents. How do you carve out time to spend together and what do you do together?
A: All of the things I do for the community are family affairs that involve Sheri, my mother, my sister and my sons, and yes, it’s a real juggling act, but we do do a lot of other things together—we really like to watch movies and play video games.
Q: You’ve been on “Ellen,” Oprah has visited you at the school, you’ve been on “The Amazing Race.” How has that changed your life?
A: My city knows me. I’m a son of the city, and the city officials support me. Even the governor has called me a couple of times. What’s’ amazing is that whether I’m in London, England or Springfield, Missouri, people recognize me, and I feel the love. My celebrity has brought me resources I didn’t have before. And that’s what this is all about: I want to take care of my community not just my babies in the high school.
