Social Justice Learning Institute
Antelope Valley High School Welcomes the Urban Scholars Program!
This year, 3 schools (Antelope Valley, Eastside, and Palmdale) were selected to implement the Urban Scholars program, sponsored by the Social Justice Learning Institute (sjli.org) The mission of the SJLI is to improve the education, health, and well-being of youth and communities of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, trainings, and community mobilization.
This program is an extension of the current African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) in that it is preparing young men of color to become college and career ready with a culturally relevant curriculum, restorative justice practices, college and career advising/planning, cultural experiences with other young men from different schools, and mentorship. While the Urban Scholars is an elective class, students who are not in the class still can participate in AAMI club, which will meet on Mondays afterschool in Room 626.
The major difference between the AAMI and Urban Scholars is that the US students will participate in a Youth Participatory Action Research Project, in which the scholars will brainstorm issues or problems at school or in the community in which they would like to see change. They will thoroughly research the topic by various methods (interviews, surveys, etc.), analyze the data, create a presentation of the findings, offer possible solutions or suggestions and present the findings to the appropriate audience (school board, city council, etc.) We are looking forward to a fun and interesting of Urban Scholars Implementation Year 1.
Brotherhood, We Stand Together