The Calling All Colors Project provides an opportunity for high school students to learn about racial tolerance and develop action plans designed to increase appreciation of racial diversity in their school communities. Students attended the winter conference at Hope College, where they learned about cultural diversity and white privilege. They implemented action plans within their school community over the academic year. The students returned to the spring conference at Grand Valley State University to share the results of their action plans and continue exploring critical diversity issues, including race and fair housing. Action Plans Grand Haven High School The goals of Grand Haven High Schools Calling All Colors group were to create peace and acceptance within our schools and our community. They strove to give people a better understanding of the effects of discrimination with the hope of prevention and equality. To accomplish this, the high school students paired up with an elementary school. The students created and preformed a skit about racism for an elementary school. Following the high school skit, the elementary school students created a skit which they performed for their classmates and the high school group. These skits demonstrated the students understanding and acceptance of diversity Holland Christian High School The goals of the Holland Christian group were to honor God, explore race and diversity issues, try and gain an understanding for what racism feels like, and then sharing these experiences with everyone at the school. The group sought to accomplish these goals by participating in dialogues and activities in which they learned about racism. They also listened to speakers on the issue. In addition, they conducted a survey of the entire senior class to learn about people’s attitudes regarding race and diversity at their school. They discussed these results in their group. In addition, they filmed this process and created a video of their process and showed it to the entire school. Holland High School The goals of the Holland High School group were to expose the student body to different cultures, break down barriers that exist between cultures, address stereotypes and how they are hurtful and celebrate what is great about a diverse school. To accomplish these goals, the students planned a Unity Week at the school. The focus of the weeks was to recognize and celebrate the diversity at Holland High School. Throughout the week, they planned many multicultural activities. Activities included videos to be shown during morning announcements, cultural activities at lunch (music, food, art), and finally an assembly at the end of the week. The assembly was focused on modern discrimination and diversity in education. Spring Lake High School The goals of the Spring Lake groups were to bring an awareness of diversity and different ethnic groups to their school community. To achieve this goal, the students broke up onto small groups and chose a story with a diversity theme. The student groups then went to the elementary schools and read to the classes and talked to them about the meaning of the books. In addition, the students hosted a diversity speaker, Patrick George, at their high school who spoke to the entire school. Wavecrest Career Academy The Calling All Colors group designed their focus to impact their school as well as the outside community. The goals for impacting students within their school were to bring awareness and understand realities of diversity issues and to motive change in their school. To impact the community outside of their school, the students strove to view our world as a whole and to embrace the diversity that is around us everywhere. To accomplish these goals, the students hosted a Cultural Fair at their school. For the Fair, they brought in speaker who talked about the topic of modern day racism. There were also booths in the gym that which taught the Wavecrest students about Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada and Kenya. At each booth, the students had a poster which highlighted important parts of each country. They also had a sample of some food from the culture represented. The students also collected goods for Africa’s Child, an organization that supports African children and their needs. West Ottawa High School The students from West Ottawa High School planned a dinner and a movie potluck event. They invited the entire school as well as the public to attend. People were encouraged to bring a dish to pass that was from your personal cultural heritage. After sharing the meal together, the students showed the movie, “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” which is a story about Nazi Germany and the Jewish holocaust. After the movie, the students led the group in a discussion, which they prepared, to reflect on the relevant issues of race in the film. Zeeland East and West High Schools The goal of the Zeeland High School group was to increase awareness, understanding and acceptance of race and diversity issues among the students and staff. To achieve this goal, the group designed and implemented two school wide activities. They organized a Mix-It-Up At Lunch day which challenged the students to sit at different tables in the lunchroom in order to break down social boundaries and meet new people. In addition, the group organized a “Diversity Day” in which they hosted a student assembly featuring a national keynote speaker, the Zeeland High Players theater group performed a scene related to race issues, and the Zeeland Dance Ensemble performed. In the afternoon portion of the day, the students brought in more than 50 presenters from the community to come and speak to different breakout groups on various issues related to diverse cultures. Total Number of People Impacted Each school submits data on their Action Plan and it’s outcomes. The schools report how many total people were impacted by their Action Plan. By adding up the number of people impacted by each school, we were able to calculate the total number of people impacted by the high school Action Plans in the 2008/2009 school year. The total number of people impacted by the high school Action Plans: 5,657 Leadership Opportunities A key component to the high school Calling All Colors program is to offer leadership opportunities to the students. By allowing the students to take on additional responsibilities in the formation of their Action Plans and through their participation in the middle school conferences, the students are increasingly engaged in the process of healing racism while learning how to become advocates for the future. In the 2008/2009 school year, many high school students showed tremendous leadership initiative and ability. Students filled out a form outlining their leadership responsibilities. Some of the capacities in which students served as leaders are outlined below. Dialogue Facilitator at the Middle School Conferences After participating in the diversity dialogues at the High School conference, the high school students were offered the opportunity to come to the middle school conference and facilitate the dialogue. This required that the students attend the dialogue facilitator training in preparation. On the day of the middle school conference, the students set an example for their younger peers by engaging them in the diversity dialogues. Not only were the high school students able to bring their unique perspective to the dialogues, they also served as role models to the younger children. Leadership Roles in Organizing Action Plans Many students also demonstrated leadership in their schools in preparation for their Action Plans. Examples of these leadership tasks included:
Three hundred and ten students participated in the Calling All Colors Middle School Conferences throughout the year, with additional students working on the Action Plans in the school. The demographic breakdown of the conference participants is as follows:
Participant Outcomes Calling All Colors participants are exposed to lessons and activities designed to increase awareness on issues of race and to increase appreciation for racial and ethnic diversity. Evaluations were completed by student participants at the conclusion each conference to gauge the impact of the conferences on the students understanding of race issues.
96% of high school students reported that they learned a new idea related to race and diversity. 93% of high school students developed a greater awareness about racial diversity. The following questions were asked in the evaluation. A sample of the responses shows the powerful impact the conferences have on student awareness and perspectives. Describe one new idea you learned from participating in Calling All Colors “I learned that you can participate in other cultures and have as much fun as you would in your own culture.” “Sometimes I don’t realize how easy it is for me to accomplish things because of my white skin and how hard it might be for others.” “I learned that people don’t realize how much racism and stereotypes exist in our community. You don’t really see the problems because it doesn’t necessarily happen to you. “I learned that just by listening you can feel empathy and gain new ideas about people and cultures.” Has Calling All Colors helped you develop a greater awareness about racial diversity? Please describe. This experience has definitely given me a greater awareness because some of the experiences that other people shared I didn’t even know still happened.” “Calling All Colors has given me a new awareness of how subtle racism can be. The conference helped open my eyes on what acts of racism really look like. The process makes me want to be more open to people different than myself.” “Learning about different cultures makes you more aware so that you are not afraid of people who are different than you are.” “I heard things at the conferences from other students that I haven’t noticed before. This experience has given me a new perspective on things.” “I know have a greater awareness of racial diversity and I talk to my little brother about it as well.” “I think this was a great opportunity to look closely at all the incredibly different people we have living in the same community but live completely separate lives.” “Calling All Colors has made me think about things that we don’t notice because it is just the way we were raised. Now, I have started to take notice of things I see and hear and it makes me want to change things.” Has your involvement in Calling All Colors influenced how you treat people from other racial and ethnic groups? Please explain. “Due to Calling All Colors, I have been able to be more open to meet new people. Now I have a few really good friends from different cultures and countries.” “This experience has changed how I treat people. I have started to make less comments about other groups.” “Calling All Colors has helped me realize that it’s not scary meeting people of a different race.” “Calling All Colors has helped me develop new ways to break down stereotypes.” “After attending the conference and listening to other students stories, I now know what people feel like when someone makes fun of them.” “After that conference, I sat down with my family and taught them about what I learned.” What did you like best about Calling All Colors? “I loved that I was able to get out of my normal surroundings and communicate, have fun and meet totally new people.” “I loved interacting with people in groups. It makes everyone feel strong!” “I really like the community of great friends that I got to meet along the way.” “I really like the unity that you fell with other students and the passion to change things.” What would you change about Calling All Colors? “I would expand it even more to let more people know what it is all about.” “I would like more discussions so that we can share and learn even more.” “I think it would be awesome if we could get together outside of the conferences with Calling All Colors groups from other schools.” Overall, how would you rank your experience at Calling All Colors? (1= It was a great experience , 5= It was not worthwhile.)
Summary
The Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance is thrilled to witness the achievements of Calling All Colors. By providing this opportunity for students to become advocates for racial diversity, thousands of young people along the lakeshore have now been exposed to the message of racial tolerance. It is a message that is most powerful when relayed by peers. Calling All Colors continues to be the catalyst for students to actively create a school environment where tolerance reigns and all students are welcomed. |
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Calling All Colors Outcome Report High Schools (2008-2009) |