Student Conference

Early in its work MSAN developed the commitment to create opportunity for African American and Latino students to guide our work. Each year we hold a student conference where teams of students of member district schools attend and engage in discussion about and planning for follow up activities related to improving the effectiveness of their schools to educate African American and Latino students. This is a youth conference that is an opportunity for African American and Latino students to learn from peers across the country while constructing messages for the academic leaders of their schools. In October 2000, the Network held its first annual national student conference. Hosted by the Cleveland Heights-University Heights and Shaker Heights City School Districts, this event brought together approximately 85 high-achieving students of color from Network high schools. At the conference, students offered important insights into the barriers to high achievement and ways in which they could design and implement school-based interventions.

A second national student conference was held in March 2002 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. African American and Latino high school students from MSAN districts across the country came together to share updates on the projects they developed after the first student conference. At the Ann Arbor conference, students also shared their ideas about how to motivate more students to succeed and how school could be made more meaningful and interesting.

A third student conference was held in October 2002 in Evanston and Oak Park, Illinois. See the online yearbook from the October 2002 conference. Special thanks to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) for providing funding for the Network's first three student conferences.

In October 2003, the Network held its fourth annual student conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Many thanks to our 2003 student conference corporate sponsors: Duke Energy, GlaxoSmithKline and Progress Energy. The Network would also like to thank the Triangle Urban League for their support. See the online photo album from the conference.

A guiding belief of MSAN is to provide opportunities to hear student voice. Our 5th annual conference held October 2004 in Princeton , NJ served as an exceptional forum for students. This article by the Chapel Hill Herald Sun describes the experiences of Chapel Hill students who attended our 2004 conference in Princeton.

Publications from Past Conferences

2007 Annual Student Conference--Action Plans

2004 Annual Student Conference--Student Ideas

Student reports from the October 2002 student conference

Student Leaders of Today, March 2002

2000 Annual Student Conference Summary

Voices of A New Century: Students' Perspectives on the Achievement Gap, October 2000