Student organizers, panelists, and attendees pose with keynote speaker Dr. Tyrone Howard; photos by Helen Chan Hill
On April 2, 2025, more than 100 PUSD high school students, teachers, and administrators gathered at the Sheraton in downtown Los Angeles to participate in Breaking the Line: Creating a Bridge Between Students and Teachers, a conference visualized and presented by PUSD’s Student Think Tank (STT) and Assembly (SAC).
Dr. Tyrone Howard from UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies delivered an inspiring speech, “If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?” Alongside his speech, Dr. Howard presented a slideshow that opened with the word RESIST. He shared the history of students making change. Afterwards, student attendees said that they were inspired by his talk and wanted more time for discussion.
The breakout rooms featured student-led panels on topics such as Taking Action after Devastation, Building Student-Led Support Systems for All, Student Voices in Policy, and more. The sessions were moderated by students, and teachers actively participated in the rich discussions.
“The thing that worked for me in the conference is hearing other students’ opinions of schools and seeing us come together to talk about changes and challenges,” said one student.
“I met a lot of new people – many of whom I hope to stay in touch with in the future. I also enjoyed the deep conversations I had with my peers,” wrote one of the teachers in the feedback forms.
Since late January when PUSD reopened schools, the STT and SAC team has been working long hours to execute the conference. On Monday, March 31 – a California holiday to honor Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta – more than 20 students worked an eight-hour day in PUSD’s empty Ed Center to design the program, assign seating, plan breakout sessions, and more.
On the day of the conference, twenty-five STT and SAC students met at 7 am at the Ed Center’s parking lot so they could rideshare to downtown Los Angeles in PUSD vans and vehicles driven by PUSD parent-employees. The team members proudly wore purple sweatshirt designed and donated by PEF.
The conference had originally been scheduled for March 2025, but the Eaton fire delayed the event by a month. Dr. Helen Chan Hill collaborated with the Sheraton DTLA, Dr. Jerell Hill procured the speaker, and the hotel donated space as well as meals.
The day after the conference, the student organizers texted each other to brainstorm what they learned and how they could improve in future years. Does anyone have post-conference depression right now? wrote one student on the Discord chat group.
Over spring break, some team members are planning to cash in the gift certificates that PEF donated to them and go see a movie together. Five years since the birth of the STT during covid-lockdown, student participants have said that the best part of the project is connecting across PUSD high school campuses.
In feedback forms submitted, a resounding number of students and teachers echoed the same sentiment: They appreciated the opportunity to connect across campuses to discuss change and wished that the conference stretched over a longer period and had included even more students, teachers, and PUSD administration.
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Sehba Sarwar has served as PUSD’s Student Think Tank founder/facilitator since the inception of the program in 2021.
