Last summer, ERA announced an innovative new program, the ERA Student Leadership Board (SLB), a program that provides opportunities for local middle and high school students to gain valuable leadership experience and learn about their rights to gender equity in schools under Title IX.

The Student Leadership Board was formed with two goals in mind. First, the student leaders would participate in a series of workshops to help them build their skills as individuals and empower their abilities as community leaders; and second, the student leaders would advise ERA’s Title IX and other gender equity work (including outreach and education materials).

The Student Leadership Board would not have been possible without the valuable contributions of several key partner organizations.  Over the last few months, staff attorney Jamie Dolkas has worked closely with key strategic partners to recruit a diverse group of young leaders to participate in the Student Leadership Board.  ERA is a member of the Alliance for Girls, a coalition of a diverse range of girl-serving organizations in the Bay Area, and is working closely with this coalition to strengthen our outreach.  Working with these organizations, ERA recruited approximately 25 student leaders who were nominated for the program. These young women are representatives organizations doing great work to empower young women, including those from low-income families and facing other obstacles.  These include Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), Sisters Rising, Turning Heads, and Sojourn to the Past.

On January 24, 2013, ERA held the first Student Leadership Board meeting.  Students were introduced to the program and participated in an interactive Title IX know-your-rights training workshop.  Students learned about their rights under Title IX and how to use this law to combat gender discrimination and bullying in schools, fight for fair access to athletic programs and other educational opportunities, and ensure equal educational opportunities for pregnant and parenting students.

The workshop was a huge success, and the student leaders were very engaged in lively discussions about the major Title IX-related issues that are impacting their schools.  At the end of the workshop, we went around the room and each student identified one issue that they view as the biggest problem when it comes to achieving gender equity in schools.  The Board came up with the following “Title IX Priority List” of the top issues they would like to address in their schools:

• Cyber bullying;
• Victim-blaming;
• Teachers/school officials/adults not taking harassment and bullying seriously;
• Sexual harassment;
• Verbal comments that continue to escalate/intensify over time;
• Educating parents and teachers;
• Rumors as a form of harassment and bullying;
• Gender-based comments (not necessarily sexual);
• How to empower students who are bullied;
• Girl-on-girl bullying;
• Sexual orientation-based bullying, discrimination, and harassment;
• Group bullying/ganging up; and
• Knowing your legal rights and having the law behind you.

On February 11, 2013 ERA held a second Student Leadership Board workshop – a writing boot camp to help build students’ sense of voice and improve their writing skills to empower them to speak out about Title IX-related issues affecting their communities.  This workshop is part of an ongoing blog-writing project that will give students an opportunity to publish articles on ERA’s website.  Students turned in essays at the beginning of the workshop discussing their own experiences of sexual harassment, gender-based discrimination and bullying, and other forms of sex discrimination at school.  During the workshop training, students engaged in exercises to help them identify their unique style and tone as a writer.  They also participated in lively, heated debates about contested Title IX-related issues, designed to help them formulate opinions on these issues and put these opinions into words.  The students expressed a wide range of viewpoints.

We will be working with the students over the next few weeks to continue to cultivate their opinions and put them into writing.  Each student leader will write and edit a blog, and we’ll post many of the blogs on ERA’s website.  We’re excited to hear from our Student Leaders and look forward to showcasing their excellent contributions.  Stay tuned for updates on the Student Leadership Board blog project!

Print PDF