For the Racial Injustice project, for the 2020-2021 school year, my group and I focused on the research question: “how does institutional racism affect how students of color perform in secondary school and how prepared they are for college?” For our project, we created a social media page (empowerdc_edu on Instagram) where each of us focused on different subjects for each month. These subjects included: the introductory story posts, in-feed “welcome” post, and began an HBCU series, informative posts in regards to Standardized testing (ACT/SAT), as well as subject tests, Finding a College and Mapping Out 4-Year Plan, Scholarships, Common App, Coalition, Letters of recommendation, Organizing Application Deadlines, College Interviews, and Financial Aid posts. We started posting at the end of February and created at least one post a week and have a total of four to eight posts monthly. Then we began collaborating with Raising a Village (RAV), we ended up using an Eagle Endowment grant to give over 200 students at RAV a supply kit containing a pack of pencils, pens, erasers, notebooks, highlighters, glue, folders, crayons, and a pencil pouch. Giving students the material and financial resources they need can help to reduce the achievement gap and lead them to success in the future. Our project has provided significant resources and information aimed at helping students with the college application process. By doing so, we can give them access to crucial information they may not be provided with at school. Students in predominantly Black and Brown communities are greatly disadvantaged since they are under-resourced and underfunded. This can have a critical impact on their college readiness, and academic success. We have found a way to make this information available to everyone in hopes to target the achievement gap.
During the implementation process of this project, I learned more about being able to form memorable educational resources. Being able to trust my group while having meaningful dialogue and debate around the achievement/opportunity gap has allowed me to grow by being more open, I always voice my opinion even if it may be different from the others in my group. Last year was difficult since we are virtual but I still learned so much and was able to grow.
My research project, for the 2021-20222 school year, was geared towards amplifying the voices of the houseless and creating an initiative that is geared towards food waste. I reached out to the Bridge Cafe and the DAV in regards to receiving their leftover food at the end of each day to distribute to the houseless. I began thinking about this project when I took What Causes Homelessness with Daniel Kerr and then I began thinking more about policies when I took a housing policy course. I learned a lot about the history of houselessness and its impacts. I wanted to raise awareness of the impacts of houselessness, especially its impacts on the Black community. Many don’t understand the implications of houselessness: the loss of community, inability to receive certain resources and opportunities, sexual violence, incarceration, how poverty and segregation lead to houselessness (which is inherently racist and classist), and how gender plays a role in houselessness. I want more students to be aware of this especially since we go to a politically active school so students who want to go into politics (especially at the local and state level) can influence housing policy. I wanted to focus on food waste because a lot of places throw out their food at the end of each day so every day most cafes and restaurants are wasting food meanwhile some people are struggling to have a meal. My project was a collaboration with the Bridge, Women’s Initiative, and Heal da Homies. On a Sunday in May 2022, we took the leftover food from the Bridge and distributed it to the unhoused at Union Station. We will create an entire program out of it.
This being my third year in the SPA Leadership Program, I believe that I am honored to work with such a great group of individuals. The organizations that I have partnered with were amazing, we worked very well together and we all contributed our opinions, ideas, and work to this project. Overall, I am very happy with how my projects have turned out and believe that I am on the right track.