Our Turn
Project Title
For general support
Date
Dec. 08, 2022
Duration
12 months
Description
Students in underserved communities are often left out of the national conversation about education policy and reform issues that continuously affect their lives. The students often seek opportunities to utilize their voices and leverage their civic leadership to advance social justice and racial equity in their communities. Our Turn, founded by a college student in 2009, allows students to play a significant role in developing public narratives around effective solutions for education equity. Our Turn coalitions help identify and prepare college students with the tools and strategies for successful grassroots organizing to advance educational reform in their communities. With continued support from the Corporation, Our Turn will continue to invest in young leaders of today and broader efforts that include consulting with other organizations and elevating youth solutions via local and national communications efforts.
Website
Project Title
For project support of the Young People’s Campaign for Education 2020
Date
Mar. 05, 2020
Duration
12 months
Description
Students in underserved communities are often left out of the national conversation about education policy and reform issues that continuously affect their lives. These students often seek opportunities to utilize their voice and leverage their civic leadership to advance social justice and racial equity in their communities. Students for Education Reform (SFER), founded by a college student in 2009, provides students the opportunity to play a significant role in developing public narratives around effective solutions for education equity. SFER coalitions help identify and prepare college students with the tools and strategies for successful grassroot organizing to advance educational reform in their communities. With continued support from the Corporation, SFER will launch the Young People’s Campaign for Education 2020, which will be informed by national polling and focus groups to improve education centered messaging in national and local conversations to encourage public debate and policy change. The campaign will also feature compelling student stories to shape a narrative around education equity that transcends divisions and polarizations of the past.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Mar. 07, 2019
Duration
18 months
Description
Students in the American public school system, particularly from low-income communities, are too often poorly prepared for college and careers. Young people who have recently graduated from public schools become cognizant of the poor quality education they’ve experienced only after they reach college. With rising tensions in the political climate in this country, civic engagement is more important than ever in supporting an equitable public education system that prepares all students to participate in our democracy and global economy. In 2009, Students for Education Reform (SFER) was founded by a group of students at Princeton University on the premise that students can spur the movement toward educational equity. Since then SFER has grown into a national community organizing organization supporting students on ninety-three campuses to accelerate reform at the local level. Since 2009, 16,000 students have joined SFER, and annually SFER supports about 1,500 student members. With renewed support from the Corporation, SFER will use story-telling to support local campaigns, build the capacity of student leaders, and strengthen issue campaigns and executive leadership.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Mar. 08, 2018
Duration
12 months
Description
Students, who can build a bridge between parents, community members, and school systems leaders, are critical to building public will for education reform. Students for Education Reform (SFER), founded by Alexis Morin as a college student in 2009, aims to amplify student voice by identifying and training college students in grassroots organizing to be able to advocate for educational reform in their communities. The organization currently includes 1,300 student members at ninety-three college campus chapters, about 50 percent of whom are students of color. SFER will increase efforts to recruit and train a critical mass of representative students while also offering coaching on organizing and specific policy priorities in its six strategic areas: Minneapolis, Minnesota; Richmond, California; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Boston, Massachusetts. With support from the Corporation, SFER will engage student leaders in organizing efforts and advocacy campaigns that work toward universal, quality public education.
Website
Project Title
For general support
Date
Mar. 02, 2017
Duration
12 months
Description
Young people who have been poorly served by the current public education system, while having the most at stake in the system’s improvement, often have almost no voice in the conversation about its reform. Students for Education Reform (SFER), founded by Alexis Morin as a college student in 2009, aims to amplify student voice by identifying and training college students in grassroots organizing to be able to advocate for educational reform in their communities. The network has grown to 1,300 student members at ninety-three college campus chapters, about 50 percent of whom are students of color. Through organizing work, SFER builds public understanding of crucial education reform policies by training student organizers, who conduct mobilization campaigns in cities, influence media reporting, and canvass thousands of low-income residents to spread knowledge about reform policies that can serve their students. Their goals going forward are to support and expand the cities staffed by full-time organizers and strengthen and sustain their national office.
Website
Project Title
For the Student Voices project and parent and community engagement efforts
Date
Mar. 03, 2016
Duration
12 months
Description
Students for Education Reform (SFER), founded by Alexis Morin as a college student in 2009, identifies and trains college students in grassroots organizing to be able to advocate for educational reform in their communities. Their student advocates have tackled issues ranging from remedial course reform, to better support for English Language Learners, to pushing for higher standards in K-12 education. With Corporation support, SFER will continue their Student Voices program, equipping young people with training and resources to provide first-hand accounts to the media about the need for education reform, particularly related to higher standards and new school designs. In addition, SFER will expand their work in parent engagement by conducting on-the-ground outreach and developing physical and online materials that inform parents about the educational resources at their disposal and how to best navigate them.
Website
Project Title
For a poll of college students' experience in K-12 education and dissemination of findings
Date
Sep. 08, 2016
Duration
6 months
Description
Many students in underserved communities are graduating from high school, sometimes with very good grades, only to find that they do not meet the requirements for entry-level college courses. And yet their voices are often not included in the national conversation on this and other education reform issues. Students for Education Reform (SFER), founded by Alexis Morin as a college student in 2009, aims to amplify student voice by identifying and training college students in grassroots organizing to be able to advocate for educational reform in their communities. With the support of this grant, they propose conducting a poll of college-aged populations, focusing primarily on first-generation college students, related to their experiences in the K-12 system, with a focus on whether they feel that their education prepared them for success in college and careers.
Website
Project Title
For the Student Voices Program
Date
Sep. 17, 2015
Duration
5 months