Imani Williams Shares Insight from Local Equity Meeting

Sophomore Imani Williams was invited to attend the "Equity in Action: Moving to Re-Envision 2025" spring showcase in March. The event is part of a large-scale initiative to shine a light on underrepresented community members in our area. She says, "When learning that Indian River County was still under a desegregation order in the public schools, I was deeply surprised. Considering I’m a student, one might think I would realize this, but because I go to a private school I wasn’t aware. Additionally, because I attend a mostly white school that when thinking about other bigger public high schools like Vero or Sebastian, I expected somewhere filled with so many students of color that there would not be this problem. I wanted to learn more about the steps that were going to be taken to diversify the schools. "Crossover Mission was invited to participate in the Equity meeting and as a member of the Crossover youth advocate group I was elected to join the Crossover delegation. We all met at the Gifford Youth Achievement Center to hear a presentation by the head of the Equity program Dr. Taylor-Long. "In one of the breakout sessions out of the four, I was really impressed by the African American Student Council. One of the things that I was impressed with was their commitment to build a new program after seeing the need in their school for African American voices. These students had their own mentor to help guide them, and this encouraged me to find my own mentor at Saint Edward’s. I also connected with the head of this student council to collaborate to start an African American Alliance club at Saint Edward." Great job, Imani!