About
Zerohour initiatives at Gardena HS for the 2007-2008 school year include:
Thursday human relations classes as part of the Peer Health mentoring curriculum.
The class is sponsored by the UCLA-Harbor Medical Center Department of Family Medicine
and Healthy Start and is taught by staff member Sikivu Hutchinson. These sessions focus
on gender roles, male/female identity formation, sexuality, HIV/AIDS awareness, sexual
assault awareness, and mental health and wellness for young women of color.
Fall and spring recruitment for the 2007-2008 Women's Leadership Project cohort began
in November and February. The program began in 2006 and targets 9-12 grade girls. The
program focuses on leadership building, feminism, civic engagement, cultural identity,
self-esteem, college preparation, media literacy and fostering collaboration between women
of color. Students receive service learning credit for graduation for participating in the
program. The program is run in partnership with Beyond the Bell/Healthy Start and community
intern Diane Arellano.
Life Skills class sessions featuring HR curriculum which focuses on introducing 9th grade
students to peer and relationship building exercises including political issues debate,
prejudice and discrimination and intergroup stereotyping, team-building, peer interviews,
role play activities and whole class discussion on race/gender, community and identity. The
classes culminate in a student facilitated day of dialogue at the end of the semester and will
feature presentations by resource providers.
Cultural Proficiency staff development series featuring faculty/administrator dialogue and
activities around cultural relevance, prejudice, achievement gap dynamics and differential access,
classroom management and faculty relationships.
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News/Events
Media Literacy Education: Sexism, Misogyny, Masculinity,
Homophobia and Youth of Color
On February 28th GHS Life Skills and Peer Health Mentor
students began the first in class session of Mother’s
Day Radio’s (MDR) media literacy training on hip hop
imagery with founder Shaunelle Curry. The session featured
an introduction to MDR’s national socially responsible
hip hop campaign (in collaboration with the hip hop
collective Take Back the Mic), viewing of Byron Hurt’s
documentary Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes and recruitment
of youth for involvement in community advocacy efforts
with radio stations and record companies. Students explored
such themes as mainstream definitions of manhood and
their relationship to violence in pop culture and social
acceptance of the objectification of women of color.
MDR will return to GHS in late March to train Women’s
Leadership Project, BSU, MECHA and GSA students with
college student facilitators and mentors.
Black History Month Program:
On February 29th GHS student groups, including the Women’s
Leadership Project (WLP), participated in the school’s
black history month program with an audience of over
300 students. WLP students did a dramatic reading of
Sojourner Truth’s 1851 “Ain’t I a Woman” speech, which
focuses on the complexities of the lives of enslaved
black women and their role in the fight for human rights
in the women’s and abolitionist movements. The reading
was part of a narrative students collaborated on about
the past 300 years of African American civil rights
history from the plantation era to the present.
World AIDS Day 2007 On November 30, students from Gardena
High’s Peer Health mentoring class and the Women’s Leadership
Project gave presentations to Health and Life Skills
classes for World AIDS Day, which is commemorated on
December 1. Students distributed posters and pamphlets
that they prepared with bullet points debunking myths
and misconceptions about HIV/AIDS contraction and facilitated
discussion with students on relationship communication,
the “down low” phenomenon in black/brown communities,
and the culturally specific challenges that black and
Latina women face around safe sex practices. Students
were joined by doctors from UCLA/Harbor Medical Center
for an in depth presentation on quality of life issues
HIV/AIDS patients encounter after their diagnoses.
On December 13th GHS Life Skills classes participated
in a day of dialogue on campus conditions. The sessions
were lead by seven student facilitators. The facilitators
lead students through an icebreaker, survey and discussion
on such topics as intergroup relations between young
people of different racial and cultural groups, youth-adult
relations, discipline, campus safety and cleanliness
and sexual harassment. Approximately two-hundred 9-11th
grade students participated in the activity. Survey
results will be used to develop an agenda for Healthy
Start’s new youth commission in January.
More
2007 Archive News and Events
Mix It Up Lunch Day
Media Literacy Forum
Gardena HS Women's Leadership Project and the Days of
Dialogue
Gardena HS Women's Leadership Project
“Gardena HS Day of the Dead Celebration,” sponsored
by MECHA, BSU & API Club
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