Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! All week long, we’re showing love to our amazing PeerForward advisors.
May 7th is Black Teacher Appreciation Day! On this day, we honor the profound impact of Black educators as mentors, role models, and pillars of communities. In celebration, we are highlighting Malcolm Harris, our PeerForward advisor from Legacy Leadership High School. It is thanks to Advisors like Malcolm selflessly volunteering time out of their summer break to accompany them that our Peer Leaders are able to attend their Summer Workshops. Not only do they accompany them during the summer, but they support them as they follow out their campaigns throughout the school year as well! We caught up with him to learn more about his experience as a PeerForward advisor and the positive changes he has noticed in his Peer Leaders following their Workshops:
As an advisor, what changes do you see in your students following their time at their PeerForward Workshop?
Before the Workshop, the kids were excited but didn’t know what to expect. On the first day, jet lag was crazy. In the coming days they brightened up becauseof the opportunities they got shown and the support that’s being given by the College Coaches and Writing Coaches. It opened up their minds to a brighter horizon of things that can be done. Now they know how we can take something small, such as the simple thought of going to college, to build a whole plan. From a plan, we have the blueprint, and now we can begin the work to start building.
Can you talk more about the roles your Peer Leaders take on when they return to school in the fall?
My group of Peer Leaders from last year were a strong group, all of those kids were accepted to eight or more schools. One thing that I really was treasured about them is that they were already leaders before they got to PeerForward. I feel like PeerForward pushed a little bit further with the option of being Peer Leaders. A lot of their classmates really looked up to them. It wasn’t even about cracking down on them about this and that, but more the encouragement that they gave them. The, “Oh, well, I know you think it’s not going to happen, but we could just stay in this race. We can keep on going. College is still an option. I know it may not be a university, but it may be community college and you’re still going. ” They were also being inclusive, because a lot of my kids that graduated are IEP students, and they are in a special education program. A lot of them applied to postsecondary programs thanks to Peer Leader encouragement. I just liked the fact that my team supported their peers in every way and never made them feel left out, even if they didn’t have that option of going to college. They took the lead in a lot of things this year, which I’m really, really, really proud of them for.
How does their presence as Peer Leaders impact your school’s community?
My kids this past year made a big difference with PeerForward. They kept their peers on track, and I feel like it brought a sense of help not only to the kids, but also to the staff. Our guidance counselor does more than just guidance. Just having those Peer Leaders around to support him with connections really helped him out a lot. My principal really leaned on the support from those young leaders, just being there, even with our bilingual kids who were just coming into the country probably like a year or two ago and learning English. Now we have a whole team of people that’s giving support. You have a whole team of friends and peers that are coming together to uplift their classmates and push them to the finish line. PeerForwad has left a big impact on our school. Even now being our fourth year, everything has continued to grow. It’s going to get bigger from here, but it just left a big stamp on us.
