The Vandergrift Administration announced its application for mentors for the program, Pipeline to Preeminence initiated by the 2018-2019 Mister N.C. A&T, Derek Edwards.
“This program relates to my platform Mission S.O.S under the mission objective: Undercover Big Brother Big Sister now known as Educational Equity,” said Derek Edwards senior supply chain management student and Mister N.C. A&T.
“This program has been a vision of mine since 2016, and now I get to execute it by promoting educational equity and influencing the future generation.”
More than 60 years after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case that deemed segregation in schools unconstitutional, minority youth are still feeling the effects of institutional racism through their tendency to be drawn into the School to Prison Pipeline at an early age.
The School to Prison Pipeline is a national trend of the disproportionate tendency of minors and young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds to become incarcerated due to increasingly harsh school and municipal policies, according to Nancy Heitzeg, author of “Education or Incarceration.”
It has been reported that more often than not, students affected by the trend are of black and latinx backgrounds.
The strict enforcement of zero-tolerance policies and an increase of police officers in schools are leading black students to become three times more likely to be suspended than a white student for the same offense, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Students suspended or expelled for a discretionary action are three times more likely to end up in contact with the juvenile justice system within the following year.
“We can’t police over our schools. Understand if you ask a police officer to come to our school and they witness a crime, a kid is going to jail,” said Oliver G. Gilbert III, Mayor of Miami Gardens, Florida in an open forum about the School to Prison Pipeline.
This same trend is also affecting black youth throughout North Carolina, and students at N.C. A&T can help to put an end to it.
Aggies can join the Pipeline to Preeminence program and work directly with fourth and fifth graders at Gillespie Elementary School as “Preeminence Partners.” The mentors will improve their behavioral and learning skills to exceed Guilford County requirements through mentorship.
“We are looking for applicants and potential mentors to be students who demonstrate a positive attitude and acts as a positive role model, takes a personal interest in the mentoring relationship and motivates other by setting a good example,” said Edwards.
The objectives of the program are to:
- End the “School to Prison Pipeline” by developing strong relationships with your selected student; connecting at least once a week with lunch, reading and math sessions, and end of quarter mixes.
- Decrease the growth proficiency gap by five percent at Gillespie Park Elementary.
- Reduce the number of students of color receiving repeated office referrals and reduce the of referrals from 65 to 58 or below during the 2018-2019 academic school year.
As lead coordinator of the program, Edwards hopes to see the program potentially grow to reach middle and high school students, but ultimately is focusing on reaching the main objective of assisting students at Gillespie Park Elementary school with meeting Guilford County end of grade scores.
Students can apply to become a “Preeminence Partner” from October 2 to October 12 at 11:59 p.m. through the link below: goo.gl/forms/NTxRgPIeR1ycQ7np2.
