The Scholar Social

The Scholar Social seeks to increase youth civic engagement while providing tools for educational equity led by the youth.

The Scholar Social acts as an interactive classroom in a teen's everyday life. By utilizing tools such as social media and technology we get a chance to meet scholars where they are in order to get them where they have the potential to be. The Scholar Social is currently a nonprofit organization and podcast seeking to educate youth in politics and encourage adolescents to get more civically engaged. We have reached out and partnered with schools across the nation and engaged them in teen-led workshops that blend their life experiences with the curriculum. We leverage our youth to reach scholars in ways adults cannot. This encourages them to do more and become active members of their communities, especially through Scholar Social-led events such as teen halls and community workshops. We utilize social media platforms to get the message out but we normally engage the youth with in-person activities and exercises. 

The lack of youth involvement in decisions affects the way we live. Students make up about 20% of our population, but they also make up 100% of our future. Engaging the youth to be more politically and civically engaged ensures a future where we can almost guarantee individuals that will strive to do what is best for our communities and our nation. The sooner we can engage the student and help them to see the importance of their involvement before it becomes necessary helps us to ensure a brighter future. There are about 20 million students in the United States. In the current predicament of the world, we are seeing more disengaged students every day. More burnt-out teachers and a decline in people pursuing educational degrees make it easier to predict the gradual dependence on technology more than human interaction in the future. But the problem with this, as seen during the pandemic, students are at the biggest disadvantage with sole dependence on technology to educate our youth. The number of students failing classes during virtual school has almost doubled when virtual schooling took center stage. Making the future I mentioned to you before even more unpredictable. This may seem minuscule now, but look 5 years into the future. With such a massive number of students failing in STEM classes, there is a high probability to see fewer individuals branching into these feels that are becoming increasingly urgent. The affects everyone. We can expect STEM fields to go unfilled. This means the innovation we need to see in the medical world will be delayed. This means the efficiency of information we need to see will go undone. According to a White House report, 20% of high school grads are ready for the rigors of STEM majors. In fact, over the past 15 years, this report also found that the US has only produced 10% of the world's science and engineering graduates. Seeing as America is the world's greatest superpower and leader in innovation this is a scary statistic.

With the Scholar Social, we are trying to fix the problem before we see it come to fruition. Scholars begin to fall behind in school between 7th and 10th grade. We are targeting this age demographic so that we do not have to see the projected future I highlighted before. Currently, students are disengaged and are not being reached outside of the required work hours of teachers. Many teachers assume that because a student is present that does not mean they are participating. Many schools, especially those with a majority-minority demographic have fewer tools, staffing, and educational material to engage their youth. Because schools are underfunded there is a cause for concern when preparing the individuals we seek to entrust the world to in the very near future. The Scholar Social is seeking to fill in the areas our school systems leave unfulfilled. We hope to tap into the areas that go unreached with minorities by engaging them with their experiences and teaching them things they already know and supplementing their learning with materials and activities that are geared specifically for their success.  

As a product of Atlanta public schools and the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, I have been in two very different environments where my education was a priority. I have worked with organizations like Yes! for equity, Future Successors, The Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project, Rin Clarke academy, and The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Each of these programmings makes the student the first priority, as opposed to your standard school's system, each of these programs followed the sentiment of, "love first, teach second" which directly engages the student because they seek to know them on a personal level, then get them where they need to be. 

I chose the prototype stage of development because we are currently in the testing period of our programming. We have made impressions all across the country as we have recently initiated a branch of The Scholar Social at The Cate School in California. We each had the gumption to collectively find a solution to a dilemma we see in our country that poisons our communities. The lack of youth involvement in decisions affects the way we live. Understanding though we do not have a vote, we do have a voice. With the work we have already done we have been an eye witness to the fervent fire that ignites in children's eyes when their experiences intertwine with their education. Hearing feedback from McDonough Middle School, we have unveiled a side of their students that has been concealed during these unpredictable times. With feedback from the head counselor at Dekalb Agriculture Technology & Environment, we were the solution to the disconnect between the students and the adults.