Learning to shift power

Student speaks into a microphone

Community advocates met with Albany High School seniors Tuesday to help them identify a social justice mission and analyze how to help balance the scales of power in their community.

The students are taking Civics and Public Engagement, and Tuesday’s in-school field trip was designed to generate excitement about their senior capstone project – an assignment that will help them synthesize and demonstrate what they’ve learned in school and through a social justice project they will take on.

Leading the discussions were activists Paul Collins-Hackett of the RED Bookshelf, Beverly Ivey of NAACP, and Sierra and Diandra Sangetti-Daniels, both of the People’s Perception Project.

Students broke into groups and discussed the meaning of a social justice mission, how to analyze power dynamics, ways to shift power and how to connect people in communities for the greater good.

Throughout the year, and with guidance from their teachers, the students – most of the senior class – will network with the advocates and their connections to build their own social justice network for their project.