Long Island Students To Talk Racism And Education At Institute

SYOSSET, NY — Three Long Island Students will address around 1,200 educators at this summer’s Reimagining Education Summer Institute at Teachers College, Columbia University, according to a Monday announcement from ERASE Racism President Elaine Gross.

The four-day professional development institute, which will be held virtually this year July 13-16 will focus on "Teaching, Learning, and Leading for a Racially Just Society."

The students, who are all members of ERASE Racism’s Student Task Force, will address educators at the institute’s afternoon plenary session July 14. The session will conclude with a discussion titled “Rewriting LI Curriculum: Structural Racism,” which will address initiatives of ERASE Racism’s Student Task Force to create culturally responsive-sustaining curricula.

The student task force consists of a group of volunteer high school students focused on creating change in their schools and communities while continuing to learn from others, Gross said.

The session will feature Community Educator and Organizer at ERASE Racism Ian Lesnick and recent Syosset High School graduate Tolu Ajao, Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School sophomore Simran Goraya and recent Huntington High School graduate Zadie Lauer.

Seventeen other members of ERASE Racism’s Student Task Force will also speak in a workshop titled “Integrating Classroom Conversations about Structural Racism into Standards-Based Curricula.” The interactive workshop will draw on initiatives that students have taken throughout the year to advance culturally responsive-sustaining curricula.

Each year, the Reimagining Education Summer Institute is designed to help all educators learn how to create integrated schools and classrooms that “tap into the educational benefits of racial and ethnic diversity,” Gross said. The Teachers College at Columbia University, where the institute is held each year, is one of the nation's top graduate schools of education.

A total of 30 educators from 10 Long Island school districts including Syosset Central School District and Jericho Union Free School District, were awarded funding from the Rauch Foundation — a Long Island-based family foundation that "invests in human development and sustainability" — to also participate in the institute this year. The fellows include teachers, an assistant superintendent, four principals and eight assistant principals.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for these members of ERASE Racism’s Student Task Force to influence the thinking of the 1,200 educators from across America,” Gross said. “It is also an outstanding recognition of the important perspectives of our students at a time when America is looking for leadership on the challenging issue of racism in America.”