At the 2024 Ethnic Studies Youth Summit, organized in collaboration with Responsive Education for Access, Community, and Hope (REACH), AA CARES proudly exemplified its commitment to healing, innovation, and community empowerment. Together, we welcomed approximately 200 students from Jefferson Union High School District, their Ethnic Studies teachers, and Superintendent Toni Presta. AA CARES and REACH partnered with Asra Ziauddin, Social Science Curriculum Lead at Jefferson High School, to curate the day’s events. The summit’s theme, Legacy (Re)Visioning Ethnic Studies, provided students with an opportunity to hear from distinguished speakers and inspiring change makers.
The summit began with insightful remarks from San Francisco State University faculty, including Dr. Amy Sueyoshi, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dean Grace Yoo of the College of Ethnic Studies (CoES), and Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, recipient of the 2024 Wang Family Excellence Award from the California State University. Dr. Arlene Daus-Magbual from CoES led a panel of SFSU alumni who had organized a pivotal hunger strike in 2016 to protest budget cuts within the College of Ethnic Studies. Reflecting the summit theme, the panel discussed their past roles in the strike, how Ethnic Studies currently influences their lives, and engaged students in a dialogue about the future.
As inheritors of the Ethnic Studies legacy, students were encouraged to share their perspectives on how Ethnic Studies will shape—and should shape—the future. Summit attendees also participated in workshops on poetry, praxis, or protest where they processed learning, deepened their consciousness, and reinforced their commitment to collective liberation. As the summit closed, attendees had an opportunity to witness activism first-hand. SFSU President Lynn Mahoney and pro-Palestinian student activists held an open negotiation session on SFSU’s Malcolm X Plaza. An opportune moment for learning, Jefferson Union High School teachers and students gathered afterward to discuss and reflect.
The Ethnic Studies Youth Summit underscores AA CARES' mission to foster healing, innovation, and community resilience. As a collective dedicated to racial and social justice, AA CARES continues to be a place for future leaders to exercise their voice and imagine our future.
Note on our partner organization:
REACH was established to enhance San Francisco State University's ability to address equity gaps in college access, persistence, and graduation rates. It employs culturally responsive and equity-focused strategies aimed at supporting Asian American and Pacific Islander and low-income students. Grounded in a framework of community responsiveness and critical pedagogy, REACH fosters hope for societal transformation. REACH provides outreach, peer mentoring, financial literacy, leadership development, community-building, supportive academic spaces, and research initiatives to achieve these goals
REACH is housed within the Race, Empowerment, and Justice (REJ) Project at San Francisco State University’s College of Ethnic Studies. REJ supports faculty, units, departments, and the college with projects that are extramurally funded.