Youth Symposium Summer for Grade 6-8 Program and AEA Summer Program for incoming 9th-graders

Posted April 15, 2022

Youth Symposium Summer for Grade 6-8 Program

This 2-week Summer Youth Symposium serves as a growth opportunity for diverse students entering grades 6, 7, or 8 to engage, explore, and learn from high school youth leaders about a shared topic of interest. Skilled, racially and culturally-diverse high schoolers will follow a peer mentor model to co-develop and co-facilitate programs for middle school student cohorts.

The YS is rooted in the district’s commitment to equity, including our DPS Equity Statement, and in-district transition priorities on student experience and achievement. See the flyer below for more information.

AEA Summer Program for Incoming 9th-Graders

The AEA summer program will serve as an immersive 4-week pilot cultural identity and ethnic studies program on Black/African-American & Latinx experiences and ancestral histories. This space will also provide opportunities to unpack and explore varied racial, social, historic, and modern civic complexities facing marginalized populations and communities in the 21st Century. We know that social studies curriculum education (ethnic studies and cultural learnings) in the middle grades can contain significant gaps with respect to Black/African-American and Latinx perspectives and experiences.

Therefore, our initial focus on incoming 9th graders, especially Black/African-American & Latinx students, is a purposeful opportunity to address current efforts to strengthen student achievement, elevate student voices, and to provide the encouragement and support students’ need to grow cultural and racial identities and understanding. It is our hope for AEA participants to carry forward their remarkable ancestral learnings, histories of resilience, and excellence into the upcoming school year. All incoming 9th-grade students are welcome to apply.

Click here for the flyer. Please use the following webpage for both AEA & YS STUDENT Enrollments.