Press Release Details
SFUSD holds 3rd annual Ethnic Studies Student Summit
San Francisco (April 16, 2019) - Approximately 800 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) Ethnic Studies students from 13 high schools are expected to attend SFUSD’s 3rd annual Ethnic Studies Student Summit on Wednesday, held in coordination with San Francisco State University (SF State) Asian American & Pacific Islander Student Services.
The event will celebrate the legacy of the SF State student strike in 1968, which led to the creation of the first College of Ethnic Studies in the United States. It remains the only college of Ethnic Studies in the U.S. Dr. Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Associate Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies at SF State, will deliver the keynote. An Ethnic Studies panel will include strikers from 1968 as well as current Ethnic Studies students in SFUSD.
The summit will provide an opportunity for Ethnic Studies students enrolled in SFUSD to learn about the College of Ethnic Studies at SF State and explore Ethnic Studies career pathways. Information about student organizations and community-based organizations will be distributed. Students will gain exposure to the legacy of social change movements led by youth.
“The SFUSD Ethnic Studies program is an education for humanization that hinges upon the student development of knowledge and love of self; solidarity between communities, particularly with the most marginalized and dispossessed; and individual and community agency and self-determination for the purpose of challenging white supremacy and other systems of oppression,” said Artnelson Concordia, SFUSD Ethnic Studies Teacher on Special Assignment.
A San Francisco Board of Education resolution first called for the support of Ethnic Studies in 2008-09. In 2010 a pilot program was approved to develop the existing Ethnic Studies coursework at five high schools. The Ethnic Studies course expanded to reach all SFUSD high schools beginning in the 2015-16 school year.
Through Ethnic Studies, SFUSD educators develop and teach a more robust historical narrative that centers on the perspectives of historically marginalized communities. The Ethnic Studies course is designed to give high school students an introduction to the experiences of ethnic communities that are rarely represented in textbooks, and offers a compelling way to examine race, ethnicity, nationality and culture in the United States.
The course equips students with a critical lens to see the world and their place in it by understanding systems and power at the root of American society, and aims to motivate students to actively engage in democracy. Through Ethnic Studies, students are supported to discover and use their own power for the benefit of not only themselves, but also that of their community and society at large.
EVENT DETAILS:
WHEN: Wednesday, April 17, 9 a.m. - 2 p.m.
WHERE: SF State Student Event Center (Annex 1)
Media who are interested in attending, please RSVP to Laura Dudnick at dudnickl@sfusd.edu or (415) 730-0314.
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Page updated on 04/16/19