As the school year started in earnest, UP Faculty Ana Lindert-Boyes, Maisie Franke, and Lindsey Halman traveled to Wilmington, DE, to begin year two of UP’s work with the Brandywine School District (BSD) project to Elevate and Empower Student Voice. The dynamic youth-adult team brings together youth from each of three district high schools and includes adults who are district leaders in BSD. The goal of this first retreat was to create connections, build relationships, explore leadership and provide facilitation training for the BSD youth leaders. 

UP first connected with Brandywine SD in 2020. The Delaware Department of Education (DDOE) had created the Equity Education Framework: Strategic Intent 1.0 Elevate and Empower Student Voice with a commitment to centering student voice to ensure equitable access to education. The goal was to find schools, school districts and communities exemplifying student voice in action to guide establishing, sustaining, and scaling effective student voice practices in Delaware. Through ongoing dialogue with the DDOE’s Office of Equity and Innovation, they connected UP with our current partners in Brandywine School District (BSD) to pilot this project. This school year will see recruitment of a larger team of youth and more data collection on how and where to add student voice.

Concord School sixth graders spent a day at the Lyndon Outing Club engaging with UP for Learning and other community partners in community building activities. This opportunity arose from work UP started last school year with the Concord School working with the student council on school climate and community. 

During the day, youth enjoyed games and being outdoors with the Lyndon Outing Club, made pizzas with the after school community, and connected with each other and school-based adults. UP Program Director, Jackie Verley, facilitated the group in a version of the identity iceberg activity. In the spirit of the day, the group worked on the identity of their youth-adult community.

Trailblazers, UP for Learning's student-driven e-magazine about the Education Transformation Movement, needs contributors!  

For each new issue, the Trailblazers Production Team seeks out "Spotlight Learners" from around the world to share their unique voices on the topic of transforming education.

We intentionally try to not set a “theme” for each new magazine issue because we want the articles to be authentic; we want young learners to share whatever it is that they feel driven to talk about, not what someone else prompts them to talk about. Thus, we work individually with each learner throughout the writing process to amplify their voice while striving to create an issue that provides a diverse mixture of commentary on the current education paradigm.

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