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Diversity, Empowerment, Leadership and Institutional Change Cornerstone: A Student of Color Alliance

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Cornerstone helps create a welcoming and supportive environment for all students ... My old friends have dwindled ... and my ... disconnection with them hurt. ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Diversity, Empowerment, Leadership and Institutional Change Cornerstone: A Student of Color Alliance


1
Diversity, Empowerment, Leadership and
Institutional ChangeCornerstone A Student of
Color Alliance
  • Cornerstone helps create a welcoming and
    supportive environment for all students who come
    to Blake.
  • We aim to help students of color feel they belong
    here, to feel they are at home in these halls,
    and to feel
  • they can take ownership of their education. We
    also work to make Blake become an environment
  • that can feel like home to all students who
    enter its doors.
  • Marie Michael, Program Director

2
Mission and Objectives
  • Cornerstone exists to assist in the retention
    and thriving of students at Blake Upper school.
    The program aims to prepare students for the
    academic, social, and cultural norms at Blake and
    to support them in achieving their potential by
    helping them
  • Understand how the brain works and how to
    practice effective learning strategies for
    getting the most out of their academic classes
    and their study time.
  • Identify and negotiate the socio-cultural norms
    at Blake.
  • Develop a positive racial identity.
  • Become culturally competent.
  • Develop and practice leadership skills.
  • Make connections with adults (within Blake and in
    the larger community) that act as role models,
    teachers, and mentors, and
  • Find community and support so they feel
    emotionally safe and can thus focus on being
    successful students, fully engaged at Blake
    academically, athletically and socially.

3
Jen Vance, Blake Science Faculty
  • Cornerstone is a program that allows students to
    grow as students as well as people. They are
    connected to a caring, dedicated adult who knows
    them well enough to challenge them to reach to
    their potential and who supports them when most
    in need. Cornerstone creates a safe environment
    that shows kids how to depend on each other as
    well as themselves. The program is a significant
    part of shaping these 9th graders Blake
    experience and will continue to directly affect
    their success and happiness here.

4
Rationale
  • Between 1998 and 2003, several students of color
    chose to leave Blake to attend other schools.
    Some could not adjust to the rigorous academic
    expectations, some found themselves trying to
    adjust to a cultural environment very different
    from their previous schools or from the
    neighborhoods they live in.
  • Observations of and conversations with SOC who
    remained made it clear that they (and their
    families) would benefit from a program that
    provided both academic and affinity group
    support.
  • Research on students of color in independent
    schools points to affinity groups as one
    important way students find safe spaces that
    support their success in these environments.

5
Cornerstone Student
  • Although Blake has given me great opportunities
    I know I would never have had in the public high
    school nearest to my house I feel I have paid a
    huge price for them. I have not only paid
    financially, however. Ive lost friends, and I
    constantly have to deal with everyday questioning
    of Why do you go to that school? from people
    around me. My old friends have dwindled and my
    disconnection with them hurt. I felt like I
    wasn't sure if the price I paid to go to Blake
    was worth it.

6
Cornerstone Student
  • I don't have the luxury of looking up to
    successful people around me. On my own,
  • I have to pave a road for people to follow me.
    I'm not trying to follow in my father's
    footsteps, or be as successful as my family name
    I have to make it myself.

7
The Program
  • Two week summer program - students will
  • Develop learning strategies and practice study
    skills
  • Take academic courses
  • English / Social Studies, Math, Biology
  • Be introduced to the culture, climate and
    expectations at Upper School
  • Examine the experience of students of color in
    Independent Schools and the impact of affinity
    groups
  • Build Community

8
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9
Cornerstone Parent
  • The summer sessions helped my daughter connect
    with other students of color who she may not have
    connected with otherwise. This enabled her to
    feel more comfortable in a new environment and
    especially one that would have made for great
    isolation.

10
The Program
  • Academic year program - consists of both
    student, parent and family initiatives that build
    on the programs objectives. It includes
  • Weekly sessions
  • Director as a Mini-Dean
  • Director as a liaison between school, students,
    and families Socio/educational events
  • Parent Meetings
  • Community Gatherings

11
Cornerstone Student
  • Cornerstone is a learning environment where I
    feel comfortable. I love important people we meet
    and learn from, who show us new opportunities
    Cornerstone has really had an impact on my high
    school experience. The friends Ive made will
    stick with me.

12
Students
  • Struggles they have had at Blake
  • How Cornerstone contributes to their success /
    support
  • What they offer the school and each other

13
Cornerstone Parent
  • To be honest, if Cornerstone were not there I
    most likely would have sent my child to the
    Wayzata Public Schools next year. It was very
    helpful to have someone listen to me and talk
    through some of my frustrations.

14
Frank Sachs, Director of College Counseling
  • As college counselors, my colleagues have used
    our time at Cornerstone to assure and educate
    students about the complexities of applying to
    college. We make sure they know we will be there
    every step of the way advising and advocating for
    them as they proceed through the process of
    exploring, applying to, and attending college.
    One positive affect of our Cornerstone workshops
    has been to demystify the process while
    establishing a bond with the students who are
    engaged in this program.

15
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16
Cornerstone Students
  • At Cornerstone you study with other people, and
    you teach so it helps you learn. You help each
    other out.
  • Cornerstone provides a fun environment to study
    and do homework. In a school like Blake, it is
    nice to be able to spend time with other students
    of color while being motivated by teachers of
    color.

17
Program Details
  • Current Budget and Paid Staff
  • 13,000 per year
  • Director paid a salary of 4 FTEs
  • Current Students
  • 26 Total Students 9 - 12, with an average of 20
    attending sessions regularly
  • Race / Nationality
  • 20 African Americans / Biracial
  • 3 Latino / Biracial
  • 1 Turkish
  • 1 Hmong
  • 1 African / Carribean

18
Program Details (contd)
  • Current Students (contd)
  • Gender
  • 7 boys
  • 19 girls
  • Grade
  • 9th - 9
  • 10th - 8
  • 11th - 5
  • 12th - 4
  • Volunteers
  • 5 staff the weekly sessions
  • About 15 others come in to tutor, do a workshop
    or work on behalf of the Cornerstone Action Team
  • Program Meeting Times
  • Two week summer session
  • 32 Weekly sessions
  • 3 Parent Meetings
  • 2 Family Gatherings

19
JJ Kahle, Blake Foreign Languages Faculty
  • I had several Cornerstone students in my
    classes. It is remarkable how much better
    connected to other students they are, and
    particularly with other Cornerstone students in
    the same class. All of my Cornerstone students
    are very successful and had a great start to
    their high school career. I directly attribute an
    aspect of that success to the program.

20
Cornerstone Helps Retain Students of Color at
Blake
  • In the five years of Cornerstones existence,
    the attrition rate of students of color has
    decreased. Before 2005, the attrition rate of
    students of color was consistently higher than
    than of white students.
  • Since then, the attrition of SOC has either been
    lower or the same as white students.
  • Out of the 47 Students Cornerstone has served,
    only two have left the school.

21
Diversity, Empowerment, Leadership and
Institutional Change
  • Cornerstone helps students of color gain the
    tools they need to excel to their full potential
    at Blake. It is a program designed to empower and
    to develop SOC as leaders in their school and
    home community.
  • Cornerstone assists SOC and their families, as
    well as professionals at Blake, navigate the
    colliding of cultures, which has and will
    continue to occur as Blake becomes a more diverse
    school. Students of color and their families
    both adapt to and change the school of which they
    are now a part. Likewise, as Blakes
    demographics shift, it becomes more effective at
    identifying ways in which it needs to change in
    order to serve the emerging, more inclusive
    community it is becoming.

22
Closing Quote or Photo
23
The Institution is Changing
  • During the 5 years that Cornerstone has been in
    existence, students have garnered a greater sense
    of agency. Though they dont all feel a
    full-fledged sense of ownership--that Blake is
    their school-- they see what they offer the
    community as individuals and as a growing
    community of color, and they have begun to work
    actively to help the school embrace its mission
    of pluralism.
  • The school has begun to see itself more clearly
    and to begin the work it will take to become more
    inclusive.

24
Discussion Where Do We Go From Here?
  • How do we continue to support the changing needs
    of students of color as their numbers increase
    and they begin to thrive at Blake?
  • How do we continue to support the institution in
    its continued growth, and its desire to become
    truly pluralistic?
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