Helping Students Bridge Divides in the Community and Beyond

Through the new Bridging Divides: Diversity & Social Justice course at the Delta Program and State High, students are learning about issues of equity in our community and taking action. This course is designed to help students examine the complex historical, social, cultural, legal, and political roots of current social justice issues and to connect with people whose perspectives and lived experiences may differ greatly from their own.

Students explore issues of division, discrimination, and inequality through a variety of learning activities, primary texts, guest speakers, and deliberative conversations that challenge their own understanding, assumptions, and biases.

The keystone experience of the course is a weeklong journey to Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, Alabama. During this experiential week, students visit historic locations from the Civil Rights Movement.

Students also have the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet community activists who were instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement and who still work for social justice today and learn how to turn their experience into Community Action Projects when they return to their school and community.

The SCASD Education Foundation recognizes the importance of community partnerships and experiential learning in implementing the District’s Inclusive Excellence Policy, and is thrilled to offer donors and friends the opportunity to make an impact.

For Fall 2019, the journey to Alabama was funded through private donations and one-time grants. As the experience was truly transformative and resulted in lasting learning and change in our community, we are working to ensure that students taking the course in the future have the same opportunity to grow and make a difference.

Your donation will fund travel to Alabama, directly impacting students in the course by providing equitable experiential learning, immersion in history, skills in critical thinking and deliberative decision making, long-lasting community relationships, and the building blocks of civic engagement that strengthen our local community.

Gifts at all levels make a difference.

Building Foundations: A gift of $75 funds one student’s admission to key historic sites.

Forging Connections: A gift of $225 provides one student’s transportation for the week.

Bridging Divides: A gift of $1,100 fully funds one student to experience the journey.

 

Read more about the course, including student testimonials about their experiences, or click here to make a gift now.