Participating in the 2020 Youth Leadership Summit by NYLC taught me a lot about the importance of leadership and service learning in order to address issues regarding education inequity all over the world.

In this conference, I had the chance to talk to many teenagers from many different parts of the world that wanted to come up with solutions to the education inequity in their own situations. Talking to these very different people, I realized that for many people, education inequity is seen more in terms of the diversity and the intersectionality of the students.  Meanwhile on the other hand, here in Colombia education inequity is seen more in the sense of socioeconomic status and privilege vs poverty.

Coming into the Summit, I did not really imagine and understand that education inequity is definitely seen when it comes to different identities. Then I started to think about it and it definitely made sense and I even started to relate to some of the things that they were saying about the difficulties in education when one has a diverse identity. In my community, the Jewish religion is a minority among the Christian religion. In my school, you can see this as well, with there only being up to 10 Jewish kids in each grade (if any).

This conference for me brought to light the idea of how I myself experience education inequity due to my intersectionality. I am not saying that I have ever felt oppressed by anyone because of my religion but I now realize that in my school, because the majority of the students and staff belong to the Christian religion, Judaism can at sometimes be slightly disregarded. At times I have heard students say jokes about the Holocaust that really impact me given that I am a Jew, but because I have to “fit in”, I just stay quiet and pretend like it’s okay. The Summit showed me that I can stand up for my identity and I should not have to even hear these jokes made about a very harsh subject to my community.

I think that the conference definitely lit up a spark in me and makes me want to stand up and advocate against the hate and anti semitism to my religion. On another note, we also had a session focused on service learning and leadership. I really love doing social service and I learned a lot about how I can be a better leader. By taking the test to see which type of leader I am, I saw that being a South, I am really focused on creating relationships with others and the more human side of service. This kind of confirmed to me that I want to make a difference for people who are facing issues by connecting to them. I also feel like I really got to understand the IPARD (Investigation, Planning & Preparation, Action, Reflection, and Demonstration) process of service much better thanks to the explanation they gave because even though we had seen it in VIP one time, I didn’t really fully understand it. But now, knowing the process I want to apply it to whenever I do social service because I really liked the steps and the way it was organized.

Finally, I learned that many teens have the same fear of trying to make a big difference like me because we are afraid of what others may think. I now know that we are the future of the world and we can actually start making differences now! I want to try to think of a project with the IPARD idea in my mind to see if I find a cause that passions me to want to help!

The post Reflecting on the Youth Leadership Summit on Education Equity first appeared on National Youth Leadership Council.

Unfortunately, this is not the reality for many students across the United States. Issues of equity become readily apparent when students go hungry because they no longer have school breakfast or lunch.  Students may have been assigned a computer from school but the coffee shop or library where they used to connect to the internet to do their homework is no longer open. Or they are isolated in a rural area with limited broadband. The COVID-19 crisis has made the issue of education equity even more apparent.

Young people are the largest stakeholders in the achievement gap. And because they have the most at stake, they also are positioned to make the most profound change. Once exposed to the roots of the issue, they tend to want to learn more about educational equity, to identify solutions, and to serve as change agents in their schools and communities. Analyzing the factors that contribute to the achievement gap enables students to begin to understand how they can affect it.

So, what can students do today to help address issues facing themselves and their fellow students?

• Investigate – What is happening in the community? Survey fellow students to learn about the challenges they are facing; research the community to see what resources are offered; then decide which issue to address.
• Plan and Prepare – Make a plan for how to tackle the issue. Will it require a budget? A timeline? What resources (volunteers, community experts, technology, etc.) will it take to address the issue?
• Action – Put the plan into action.
• Reflect – Reflect on what worked, what didn’t and then…
• Demonstrate – Share with others. Use hashtag #youth4ed on Twitter, tag @nylcorg on Facebook and Instagram, share the story with the local press and with NYLC.

Youth innovation on issues affecting equity will lead to lasting change. By addressing just one factor of the achievement gap, young people and adults can influence the overall outcome of a student’s academic achievement and may be able to affect other factors that are critical to the overall learning experience. The story “Oxford Student Sets Up Volunteer Tutoring Service” is a great example of how students can create solutions to inequity. Student Jacob Kelly set up an initiative to connect college students with school students in need of tutoring services. He has more than 300 volunteers making an impact on the lives of students. Another example comes from StuVoice, a youth-led organization addressing education equity, which has created a petition to colleges and universities to create more equitable admissions process due to the cancellation of ACT and SAT tests. COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates pre-existing inequities in college access, it is critical that urgent action is taken to ensure low-income, minority and other underrepresented student groups have equitable access to the admissions process.

The post Equity in Education During COVID-19 first appeared on National Youth Leadership Council.