About the Practice
The empowerment symposium is a special day that we have designed here at ACORN Community High School to provide additional support for ESI in our school. The day is composed of several workshops/ panel discussions centered around information that coincides with making our African American and Latino young men college and career ready. The topics range from Financial Literacy, Personal Hygiene and Grooming, NYC municipality career options (Transit Authority, NYPD, etc.), College preparedness, Entrepreneurship, and the Role of Hip Hop in our Community. The students are grouped by grade. Lunch is provided and during the lunch break students participate in “Da Cypha” which allows to a creative outlet to express themselves. We encourage them to perform whatever pieces they would like as long as they are not vulgar. After lunch there is a guest speaker who delivers a message that is centered on the college and career ready theme, which is followed by a Q&A session. The symposium is closed by all of the participants saying the empowerment pledge. This is an annual event that occurs in May. All of the speakers are men of color.
We began this practice last year. The entire male staff and administration is involved with planning and executing the symposium. The guest speakers are members of the community.
Target Population/Total Students:
Target Population is our African American and Latino Young Men ages 14-18. Total population is between 150-200 students.
Challenges:
- Maintaining student interest. They think that because it’s a special day they don’t have to engage or attend.
- Getting the appropriate guest speakers for the topics that we’ve chosen.
- Planning the Logistics of the activities for the young ladies that day since there will be only males in the building for the symposium.
How did school overcome challenges?
- We focused on spreading the word about the activity they would most be interested in (The Cypha) and we catered to their interests. For example several of our students have expressed an interest in working for the Transit Authority, particularly the seniors. They were informed that there was going to be someone with over 41 years of experience working with the MTA speaking. Once they heard that, they were more interested in attending.
- The female staff was instrumental in planning the trips for the young ladies to go on during that day. The trips reflected their interests and they had a good time. They also voiced their opinion about having a symposium for them also, which we are planning to do this year.
How will you continue to sustain this practice?
Scheduling is the most paramount thing that will ensure this practice will continue after the ESI grant is over. The scheduling takes a lot of planning due to the logistics of the grouping, trips outside of the building, and it takes up 2 days of instruction. The planning is a group effort with multiple people involved, therefore if a person leaves the school for another opportunity there are still enough people who are knowledgeable about planning to continue the practice.