Jul 26, 2025 By Kristin Emery 5 min read

Dr. Kathleen Miller remembers when the small community of West Alexander wasn’t such a sleepy little town.

“I grew up on Main Street in West Alexander and was there during the time when it thrived with tour buses and bustling streets,” Miller remembers. “My mother separated our house so that we could rent the front to one of the Village Shoppe owners. I sold popcorn on that front porch and worked as a cashier.”

Miller graduated from McGuffey High School and went on to become a math teacher and start a private Christian high school. Then she decided she wanted to focus more time on other community projects outside of education.

“I realized that I had been neglecting our West Alexander area, and I felt that my generation, now in our 50s, should step up and do something about the deterioration of the town,” says Miller. “That’s when I started KKS.”

KKS is short for Kleine Klasse Schule, a nonprofit organization focused on tutoring.

“Many years ago, I had a dream of starting a tutoring center, which I named Kleine Klasse Schule (small classroom school in German),” says Miller, who is the founder and administrative chair of KKS. “I have two children, Zachary Klein and Sarah Klein, from my first marriage. With years of studying the German language in college, I was familiar with some vocabulary, including “klein,” meaning small.”

That effort has now grown to help students of all ages, from SAT test preparation to teaching seniors learn computer skills and file income taxes. For its work in the community, Kleine Klasse Schule is this month’s recipient of the Driven By Hope Award, sponsored by Washington Auto Mall.

Miller first established the tutoring center to help children in her own neighborhood.

“In 2019, I established the nonprofit 501(c)3 Kleine Klasse Schule (KKS) to operate a tutoring center,” she says. “In 2020, my husband and I purchased a commercial building nearby. Utilizing this 1,000 square feet of space, we expanded our services to educate all age groups in various areas. We aid adults in passing the GED exam successfully and support students and parents in adapting to online education.”

Although the nonprofit was making significant progress in the field of education, the KKS board of directors also identified humanitarian needs within the West Alexander area. “We expanded our tutoring center to include a give-and-take library, free store, clothing and food pantry,” says Miller. “Additionally, we secured funds and grants to renovate the basketball court, establish a community garden, initiate a veteran recognition project with street banners, revive historical festivals, and assist our neighbors.”

Funding for KKS comes from three sources: project-specific grants, individual donations (both allocated and general) and fundraising activities. Their primary fundraiser is the West Alexander Fair concession stand each year. The fair traditionally starts on Labor Day, and this year’s dates are Sept. 1-6. Miller says while financial donations are always welcome to help KKS, another need is people’s time.

“We need volunteers and someone to organize them based on their strengths and interests,” Miller says.

To encourage pride in the community, KKS started a subsidiary called West Alexander Area Community of Services (WAACOS). The WAACOS focuses on community improvements with the renovation of the main street gazebo, renovation of the outdoor basketball court, creation and display of more than 70 veteran banners and assisting with the revitalization of the town’s historical significance.

Another part of KKS’ mission is called Africa NextGen, and it stems from Miller and her husband’s hosting of more than 40 international high school students over the past decade. “The majority of these young men and women have become family to us and we consider them our children,” says Miller. “We do not receive money to support them, we just did it. Many are from several countries in Africa and have very little or no money. Some from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Columbia, and others from European countries.”

One of those young men, Yoro Sidibe, attended Norfolk State University, played basketball, went to March Madness, graduated with honors, received his master’s from Texas Christian University in accounting, and is now working for Deloitte in New York City. Yoro and his brother MoMo (who still lives with Miller) are both from Senegal, Africa.

“During Yoro’s time at Norfolk State, he wanted to start paying it forward and began a basketball camp in Senegal for kids to have opportunities,” says Miller. Yoro is now one of KKS’ board members and started the subsidiary Africa NextGen to raise money for the camp that includes educational components. The program has expanded to also be available in the U.S.

“Yoro is just one of our amazing young men that are making the world great now,” says Miller. “It’s about making this world better, and the only way to do that is to give the children a chance to do just that.”

For more information on Kleine Klasse Schule or to make a donation, please visit https://www.waacos.com/.