Act for Change: Anti-Racism Program

Katherine Urena | Ulster County

Cornell University

Privilege, Prejudice, and Bias

Like the title of this post, for week three we focused on privilege, prejudice and bias. We reminded the teens that we would asking them to answer difficult questions so we reviewed collective agreements and set intentions for the day’s discussion going forward. Our group was attentive and never dismissed another speaker. 

For our group activity I started asking the teens questions regarding Stephanie’s identity, such as who she dates, where she lives and what she does outside of the program. They didn’t really want to share their thoughts but once the answers were revealed their reactions showed …
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Personal Identity & Trust-building

For our second week with the teens we wanted to strengthen our collective agreements and move on to addressing their identities, how they perceive themselves and how others may perceive them as well. Teens were asked to fill out an identity wheel that listed different categories such as race, religion, age, gender and etc. We then talked about which parts we felt were most relevant or that we felt we were more aware of. Teens were able to get more vulnerable with each other as they spoke in breakout rooms.

We also brought in an example form current events using …
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Kicking it off! | The First Session

This week we had our first meeting with the teens!

During this meeting we focused on creating community and establishing collective agreements for future meetings. Our opening activity was to have the teens guess Stephanie and I’s identities and interest just based off of our names and voices.  It was interesting to see how most of our teens were reluctant to assume things about us but in the end it was a fun exercise and helped us teach them about identity and presuppositions!

We then created collective agreements for the group that would help us maintain a safe space and allow …
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Our Biggest Obstacle & Looking Fordward

We were so excited to get started on the program and were ready to get our next cohort. To prepare and spread the word we created online flyers, sent out emails and even recorded an advertisement for a radio broadcast! We were worried at first because we were not getting any applications and had to push the date from the 18th to the 21st… Eventually we got nine amazing applicants and we were able to continue the program as planned. Getting those applications made me realize how real this program is. We have actual teens who were interested and …
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Beginning the Journey…

Welcome to my blog for CCE’s Act for Change Internship! My name is Katherine Ureña and I am a rising sophomore in the College of Human Ecology. I am majoring in Human Development with a double minor in Linguistics and Inequality Studies on the Health Equity Tract. For the duration of this program Melanie Forstrom and Malinda Ware will be working as our mentors. As co-facilitators for the new summer cohort, my partner Stephanie Jovel and I will be developing a new curriculum as well as guiding conversations for teens about …
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