Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership
Facing Race Idea Challenge
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership (PSL) will engage student leadership in closing the achievement gap between students of color and white students by developing student leaders to actively foster racial equity, cultural competence and deepened connections in their schools. s.t.a.r.t. stands for “Students Together Against Racial Tension,” a student effort launched by South High School (Minneapolis) students who wished to meet the growing integration at their school with awareness and intention. The students had the goal to “make a s.t.a.r.t” in schools beyond their own. Due to their efforts, a new program has begun at Anwatin Middle School in Minneapolis.
Each s.t.a.r.t. session will provide leadership tools that allow students to transform racial tensions into constructive learning opportunities; and to provide a safe forum for youth to effectively cross-cultural barriers. Students will also learn to manage their own organization, create a culture of inclusive decision-making, and catalyze the cultural assets of peers. They will join with adults to foster safe and culturally-competent schools.
As young equity leaders, students will learn to grow in their cultural identity, raise awareness of other cultures, and take action with peers to foster dialogue and racial equity. The founding students have: written about racial equity for their student newspaper; discussed racial equity on the radio; and facilitated dialogues about race for parents.
PSL will be a holding place for students to cross cultures respectfully and with healthy emotional boundaries, skills that will help them advance in secondary education and the ever-changing careers of a global economy.
This entry has been selected as a winner in the
Facing Race Idea Challenge competition.
About You
About You
First Name
Kate
Last Name
Towle
City
Minneapolis
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Your Idea
Title or name of your idea
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership
Describe your idea
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership (PSL) will engage student leadership in closing the achievement gap between students of color and white students by developing student leaders to actively foster racial equity, cultural competence and deepened connections in their schools. s.t.a.r.t. stands for “Students Together Against Racial Tension,” a student effort launched by South High School (Minneapolis) students who wished to meet the growing integration at their school with awareness and intention. The students had the goal to “make a s.t.a.r.t” in schools beyond their own. Due to their efforts, a new program has begun at Anwatin Middle School in Minneapolis.
Each s.t.a.r.t. session will provide leadership tools that allow students to transform racial tensions into constructive learning opportunities; and to provide a safe forum for youth to effectively cross-cultural barriers. Students will also learn to manage their own organization, create a culture of inclusive decision-making, and catalyze the cultural assets of peers. They will join with adults to foster safe and culturally-competent schools.
As young equity leaders, students will learn to grow in their cultural identity, raise awareness of other cultures, and take action with peers to foster dialogue and racial equity. The founding students have: written about racial equity for their student newspaper; discussed racial equity on the radio; and facilitated dialogues about race for parents.
PSL will be a holding place for students to cross cultures respectfully and with healthy emotional boundaries, skills that will help them advance in secondary education and the ever-changing careers of a global economy.
Website URL
Innovation
How does your idea help reduce racism in an innovative way? An innovation may be a completely new approach, an expansion of a proven one or a new twist on existing solutions
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership is unique in that it engages students as civic leaders, with adults as “allies,” rather than relying on adults to direct and organize their equity and race initiatives. Engaging students as leaders invites multiplicative potential, as it allows students to play an integral role in the delivery of educational equity. They will inform the process and determine action steps, such as retreats or engagements, to strengthen their communities.
So often, our “adultism,” or cultural patterns of imposing our perceptions and activities on youth, result in disengaging them, teaching them that they have little influence over the cultural climate around them. Through PSL, students will be given the support and tools to build and sustain their own anti-racism initiative, and to mature their culture, equity “coaches” and training in their learning environments. Student-led sessions in a safe container for intercultural bridging offers a critical antidote to research that suggests teens will choose same-race friends, even as diversity increases, unless schools allow for activities that join students across races (Moody, 2001).
Finally, rarely is student racial justice framed within a context of intercultural development that helps students build the capacity to shift their cultural lenses and take in new information. As students learn how perceptions are formed by values, thoughts and ways of sharing information, they will come to understand that racism, as one lens, can be un-learned. PSL will support students by helping them to maintain personal boundaries, as they intentionally cross cultures, and facilitate racial justice.
Impact
Tell us how racism is affecting your community. Community may be defined broadly
Racism has a profound and insidious impact on Minneapolis youth. Stories of youth who are intentionally dealing with issues of race reveal disturbing patterns. Students who have strong bridging and social skills are often frowned upon by peers, and sometimes adults in their environment, for crossing cultures. White students who take initiative to cross cultures are told that they must make “better choices for friends” by teachers and peers who are inadvertently forming perceptions based on assumptions.
Students of color are often so accustomed to forced assimilation, where they are expected to act “white” and have little occasion where their own cultural assets are recognized, that they have understandably resistance to integrative efforts. They encounter many circumstances where their statements and actions are taken as representing their whole culture; or where they may be the only one who looks like them in an activity or environment. This has created a culture of distrust, where they are also challenged by peers when they adopt the patterns, dress or behavior of white friends.
The result is very little incentive to bridge cultures, when it feels more familiar, less taxing, and generally safer to remain within one’s own affinity group. The affinity group offers a sanctuary where students do not have to apply leadership, or be judged by peers or adults, for their uncommon choices. Rarely have adults taught the personal boundaries that allow for safe bridging. Yet, this is precisely what our global economy will demand.
How does your idea bring people together to address racism in your community?
Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership brings people together across the community to support youth development. There are many aspects of racial justice work that require on-going leadership, initiative and communications. Adults who are employed and raising families have growing demands on their time. Equity efforts demand on-going reading, conversation, writing, speaking and education that is time-consuming—and often bear little results.
However, when young people engage, the dynamic shifts. They are able to help with these efforts, as they also gain service credits and gain valuable experience to prepare them for scholarship, secondary education, employment and civic leadership. Audiences are often more receptive to the voices of youth than they are to adult rhetoric. Young people bring a perceptive that is fresh, interactive and reflects the real challenges that plague our work to create an equitable society.
In youth leadership work, both youth and adults are called to their most noble efforts. The inter-generational opportunity allows for elders and adults to pass critical wisdom, while allowing youth to become educators and to practice what it means to be a leader and to impact change in community. Civic literacy is not something that is actively fostered in our “standards” movement. In addition, american students are traveling overseas less (Star Tribune, January, 2011).
Working across generations to expand cultural lenses promises to immunize the broader community with a healthy strain of both intercultural and intergenerational respect. In addition, students can reach their peers through new venues.
Sustainability
How will you use $2,500 to fully implement your idea?
s.t.a.r.t groups would be supported in two school environments, at the high school and middle school levels. Students from each setting would also have opportunities to share events, such as visits to community dialogues, together. Approximately 24-40 students would be served at the two campuses. The funding would allow for equity coaches at each site to work with the students to co-develop curriculum, organize special presentations to fellow students and staff; and to engage the support of local cultural and affinity groups that are advocating for equity.
The funding would also allow artists in the visual or performance arts, such as spoken-word artists, to work closely with the students on understanding their own identity and cultural lens, learning about each other, and developing strategies for community action.
To date, our sessions have cost approximately $125.00 per session, without refreshments, transportation, or materials. A 15-session course in one environment costs approximately $1,875, with funds remaining to support copies and materials, transportation and fees for special events, and food for the students for special events that include adults.
What do you hope others might learn from your idea?
With this idea, an equity, anti-racism framework, training program and curriculum would be developed that can be seeded in more educational environments. As students talk about stereotypes, culturally-competent teaching, and ways the impact of racism on their communities and on our nation, an incentive will be created for more adults and citizens beyond our schools to expand their cultural lenses.
As the students develop a more robust network of young leaders working together on racial awareness and citizen literacy, they will offer a high-value resource for teachers, community leaders and peers to foster dialogue and raise awareness of students’ cultural assets. Students will receive real-world exposure to equity initiatives at local schools, colleges and businesses, while also co-developing best practices and community presentations. Ultimately, students will have greater engagement in their academic goals as they grow in their cultural identities, clarity of purpose and leadership confidence.
In addition to curbing racism within our community, this initiative offers an uncommon opportunity to also curb adultism and to turn to youth intelligence as a wellspring for change and innovation. This idea sprang directly from students, who encountered many barriers in their idea development. Such a leadership venture can teach adults to “step out of the way,” and to eliminate barriers for youth contributions to the equity dialogue.
Adults will learn that students, who have time, energy and enthusiasm for this work—especially when given recognition for their leadership—will perform heavy lifting in the work right alongside adults.
| 97 weeks ago Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership has been chosen as a winner in Facing Race Idea Challenge. | |
| 99 weeks ago Kate Towle said: Thank you for your vote, Peggy. The students and I have discovered that learning conversational and community leadership along with ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > | |
| 99 weeks ago Peggy Knapp said: Kate- I voted for your project because of the strong youth leadership orientation. Bringing middle and high school students together ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > | |
| 100 weeks ago Project s.t.a.r.t. Leadership has been chosen as a finalist in Facing Race Idea Challenge. | |
| 105 weeks ago Kate Towle updated this Competition Entry. | |
| 105 weeks ago Kate Towle submitted this idea. |
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