11 Campus Teams Join Together for Youth Equity Summit ’22 on April 23
(April 25) Student leaders from four AISD middle schools and seven high AISD schools gathered for a Youth Equity Summit on Saturday, April 23, 2022 at Dobie Middle School. The event was sponsored by Austin Voices for Education and Youth, Civic Arts, and the Rundberg Alliance with support from Dobie Middle School and the AISD Student Equity Office. The Youth Equity Summit, which was originally scheduled to take place two years ago when COVID first hit, provided a forum for students to discuss difficult equity issues they experience every day, and gave students a chance to envision what equitable schools and communities would look like. Students brought a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to the day and generated ideas for what they would like to do to further equity in their schools, neighborhoods and communities.
Middle school students attended a morning session and worked with a team of graduate students from the University of Texas School of Urban Planning. These graduate students met with middle school students in advance of the summit and guided them through a process of identifying what they appreciate in their communities, what opportunities for change exist in their neighborhoods and what big dreams they have about projects they would like to create, build, or do in their communities. The UT students who worked with the middle school students and who served as scribes during the event have taken the ideas generated at the event and are creating a report that will go to the AISD Board of Trustees, Austin City Council, and local area organizations and service providers to help everyone know what is on kids minds. The middle school morning session was summed up by Austin Voices Community Schools Coordinator Jose Carrasco who told the students, “you are no longer just school leaders – you are now community leaders.”
High school teams met in the afternoon and discussed equity challenges faced by themselves, their peers and their communities. Each school team selected the topic they felt was most important. High school student leaders made presentations on their topics which included school budget cuts, access to college for first-generation college goers and racism in the classroom. According to one student, “Adults just keep talking but we don’t see things getting better. They don’t listen to us.” The Navarro ECHS team was made up of students from the Navarro Student Equity Council and the Navarro PALS program. They identified as their challenge “the disconnect between student aspirations and information about higher education and career opportunities,” and proposed a school-wide push to get more students taking advantage of the myriad programs and opportunities to earn college credit and to develop marketable skills and certifications by making these opportunities more evident, accessible and ultimately realized by more students. The ideas the students generated from Navarro have become the basis for an Austin Ed Fund grant request by the school for funds to help students, working with faculty and staff at the school, to carry out their ideas.
Community leaders Ann Teich and Candace Hunter served as a reaction panel for the high school students by responding to the students’ ideas, asking them follow up questions and providing them with suggestions about next steps to move their projects along. Long-time community leader Jose Valasquez tied together the morning and afternoon events by engaging both middle and high school students in an interactive lunchtime talk that got kids up on their feet and working together as a team.
Austin Voices plans to continue holding an annual Youth Equity Summit and will also be engaging students this fall to organize and lead a school board candidate forum as we did with students during the last AISD Board of Trustees election. We remain committed to creating opportunities for all members of our community to lift their voices and take part in the important conversations about our public school – student voices included!
Join us for the Youth Equity Summit 2022 at Dobie Middle School on Saturday, April 23 from 9 am to 3:30 pm.
Contact Louis Malfaro at lmalfaro@austinvoices.org to register as a team.
This event will bring together elementary, middle and high school youth to discuss and brainstorm around some of the key equity issues affecting education today. Morning session for elementary and middle school students goes from 9 am to noon. High school session begins with registration at 11:30 am and program from noon to 3:30 pm. Lunch and a speaker will begin at 11:30 am.
What do we mean by equity in education? It means that ALL students, no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, language, religion, family background, or family income, have access to the educational resources they need to be successful (Aspen Institute). But how do we make Austin, which has historically been a city divided across racial, ethnic and economic lines, a place that works together to support all students? That is what we will be tackling at the Youth Equity Summit.
Youth can register as either individuals or as part of a team from their school. Participants will be sent material in advance to read to inspire thinking about equity. Teams will be mixed for discussion groups, and will also work with a facilitator for 90 minutes to brainstorm a presentation around an issue that they choose. More details about teams are in the Youth Equity Summit Team Guidelines.
We’ll also have some amazing speakers (TBA) at lunch and at the end of the summit. Stay tuned for announcements soon!
The summit is free (thanks to some great sponsors), including lunch. Transportation help can be provided with advance notice. We also have some great raffle prizes to give away at the end of the afternoon (gift cards, bikes, etc.), and all participants will receive a YES t-shirt.
Our goal is to have a wide variety of youth voices from across the city for this great event. Tell your friends, tell your teachers, and get your team signed up. Questions? Contact event organizer Jose Carrasco jcarrasco@austinvoices.org.
Sponsored by Austin Voices for Education and Youth, Rundberg Alliance, Dobie Middle School and Austin ISD.