During the Spring semester, Youth Together students at Oakland's Fremont High took the lead in gauging the climate of the student community at their school. They authored and distributed a 25-question survey to over 1000 students asking them about their attitudes toward the various institutions and resources at the school, the teachers, the student government, the extracurricular opportunities, and the causes of violence. They presented the results of their survey to Oakland teachers and school board members at a Kid's First-sponsored forum at Oakland Technical High.
The results of this survey should be especially useful in the changing of the school community. This year, Fremont has moved into the "small school" model consisting of six self-governed schools. To help some students prepare for the transition, Youth Together students planned a two-day retreat during Spring Break with workshops about the new school model.
Correna Warren, who has lived her entire life in Oakland, CA, is a sophomore at Fremont High where through her participation in Youth Together and other extracurricular programs she has a positive impact in the Fremont school community. "I feel good about working in Youth Together," Correna says. "I like getting out and trying to advocate for people. I've learned that at the school they [the school administration] say that there is a lot of stuff they can do, but often it doesn't actually happen without student involvement and participation."
Her work in Youth Together is augmented by her participation in Conflict Mediation and Peer Health Education: "Through these programs, I have learned a lot of organizational skills." During the Youth Together Summer Program, she led a workshop about "getting in and out of high school. We organized skits about peer pressure, how people get into it, and how to get out of it. I like organizing things that help people achieve their goals."
Those skills should prove invaluable as she pursues her own goals in life of "going to a good college" and becoming a high school counselor. Her participation in Youth Together has helped her work toward these goals as "everyday I'm able to work with new students and get to meet new people. I'm gaining experience in working with people my age and younger people. From the site coordinators here at Youth Together, I've learned that you have to try to talk to people in a way that they can understand what you're saying, so you're not just shoving things down their throats. I've learned that it's difficult to get everyone on the same page and that in order to do that you have to find ways to make the information interesting."
