A Group Of Bronx Teens Are Trying To Transform New York City

NEW YORK Spending canada goose store a day at an affluent, mostly white high school in Brooklyn led Bronx Academy of Letters student Shania Russell to grapple with some complex feelings.

The high school junior, who is Canada Goose Outlet black, attends a school where buy canada goose jacket most students are black or Latino. Her day in Brooklyn was part of an exchange program designed to help students connect with teens from other backgrounds.

“The canada goose coats on sale point is that we already attend canadian goose jacket a really good school, and so do the other kids,” she told classmates, canada goose reading from a sheet of paper on which she’d written about her experience at the Canada Goose Parka school in another borough.

“But we thecanadagooseoutlet also attend very different schools, and we attend them separately,” Shania continued.”And unfortunately, that means there are resources that just aren’t fairly allocated between us, and there are opportunities that are not fairly distributed between us. And there’s something fundamentally wrong with that.”

Shania is involved withIntegrateNYC4Me,a Bronx Academy of Letters elective course that teaches students about the impact of school segregation and helps them advocate for more integrated, equitable ones.

Sarah Camiscoli, an English as a second language teacher at the Bronx school, co founded IntegrateNYC4Me in the 2014 15 academic year after hearing that some students were concerned about resource allocation across schools.

Camiscoli was already interested in these issues, and canada goose replica had been particularly struck by a 2014 canada goose clearance sale study from the UCLA Civil Rights Projectthat found New York City schools to be some of the most segregated in the nation. Eighty five percent of black students in the city attend schools where less than 10 percent of students are white, buy canada goose jacket cheap according to the report. But we also attend very Canada Goose sale different schools, and we attend them separately.

Shania Russell, junior at Canada Goose Coats On Sale the Bronx Academy of Letters

The day long exchange helps open students’ eyes to how resources are distributed among schools in different parts of the city.

“I canada goose sale womens always feel this tingling bit of embarrassment when I explain the exchange to people, because I just can’t find a short way of summarizing what it canada goose deals is that we are doing,” Shania told her classmates. Department of Education.

The students’ work comes at a time when the city is starting to shine a brighter spotlight on segregating schools. Next year, the district is launching a small pilot program with seven schools totweak its admissions system to foster diversity. Education department officials announced plans late last month to invite principals to create new enrollment targets for student subgroups to spur diversity.

New York City schools operate as a two tiered system where affluent, white students canada goose clearance inhabit schools that are largely isolated from most of the city’s black and brown children. This is bad canada goose black friday sale news for students of color. High minority schools tend to have less experienced teachers, and don’t have as much access to elective courses, after school programs, and high level, rigorous courses, like Advanced Placement classes.

The students of IntegrateNYC4Me noticed these differences when they did their exchange. I never expected to see a school that big. The school looked like a university,” 11th grader Garna Canada Goose Jackets Gaymon told the class. They formed easy connections. One Bronx student has plans to go shopping with her Brooklyn partner. Another was flattered when canada goose coats Brooklyn students complimented her style and makeup.

Tenth grader Amera Attalah, who is white and Arab, said her exchange partner “was expecting, um, a lot of ghetto people and commotion” at the Bronx school.

“I knew doing the exchange would change his mind,” she added.

Kevin Guerrero, a 10th grade Latino student, was initially anxious about meeting students from the Brooklyn school, and wasn’t sure he wanted to participate in the exchange. But he ultimately credits the experience with making him a more positive person.

“This is the power of school integration. It has the power to open minds and open doors for so many Canada Goose online people,” Kevin told his classmates. “I am glad to have participated in the Canada Goose Online exchange and see now that integration would help everyone; not just the students that are segregated, but those who are privileged too.”

Camiscoli wants her students to leave the program feeling like Kevin stronger, more open minded and hopeful about what’s possible rather than downtrodden or bitter.

“These are stories of strength because integration needs to be a cheap Canada Goose conversation about strengths,” she told her class. “All of you have beautiful strengths, and we are looking to see how we can most powerfully look at how we are not bringing them together and how we might in the future.”.