The PUSD Student Think Tank and Student Assembly recently presented their second youth conference Leaders of Progress: Cultivating the Next Generation of Trailblazers, at Pasadena City College. The conference brought together high school students from across PUSD high schools to learn from one another and become future advocates for their communities.
At the heart of this year’s student-led conference was a focus on student agency in public education. Students designed and hosted panels discussing and creating groundbreaking solutions for educational equality. As a highlight of the conference, the owner of Octavia’s Bookshelf, Nikki High, held a lunch keynote to have a conversation with students about the importance of self advocacy in education. High spoke of her lifelong goal of opening a bookstore, the process of opening Octavia’s Bookshelf, and forming a strong local community. She encouraged students not to wait to pursue their goals, education or otherwise.
There were three major panels presented at Leaders of Progress:
- Building Empathy
With experience gained from a three-year-long project between PUSD students and teachers about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII and its connection to contemporary civil rights, students shared what they learned from this project with panel attendees. Students discussed current events and examined parallels between historical issues and current challenges that are impacting our lives today.
- Repairing the System: Identifying and Addressing Injustice in our Schools:
Throughout history, there have been severe inequities in our school system, including implicit biases on campuses and in curricula that isolate students by forcing them to experience unfair educational patterns. This discussion shed light on the attention we must give to our district.
- Current Leadership and Its Impact on Students/Power of Your Voice
This enriching panel discussed the power of using your voice. From whispers to roars of protests, using your voice gives strength to those who are silenced. This panel showcased students who have exercised their voice to create progress in their communities and resisted censorship.
Student Think Tank members partnered to develop the panels, host panels, and lead the peer to peer discussions that defined the conference. More than eighty PUSD students attended the event, excited to exchange information on student voices in education.
One student attendee said, “I liked how we talked about how it’s very good to use your voice – not just for yourself but for others as well.”
Another student added: “I liked hearing all the panelists’ point of view on things going on in our community and getting to talk about things we don’t discuss in school.”
