Empowering Students for Systems Change
Our model is grounded in empowerment theory, which has successfully proven that social problems, like disparities in health and governance, and educational injustice, exist due to environmental factors rather than individual behavior.
In the case of educational inequity, an empowerment approach points to a systems-level problem—the unequal distribution of and access to resources.
Empowerment theory categorizes impact at three levels: individual, organizational, and community. Each is inherently connected to the others and mutually interdependent.
Our students are products of and change agents in their home and school communities. As we interact with students, our own organizations change and grow, and students shape their own on-campus organizations by disseminating the support we give them.
At the individual level, students gain skills and knowledge that will serve them in the short-term as advocates and as students, and the long-term in their careers.
This knowledge will positively impact their abilities to catalyze change in their home communities.
Implementation: Drawing the Map Together
College access and success organizations exist to help students overcome institutional barriers and systemic imbalances like remediation and college affordability, obstacles that are deeply embedded in structural oppression.
Our policy and advocacy efforts will advance the work we are already doing. Partnering with students to identify policy priorities and assist their movement-building are the types of activities that will ensure underrepresented students successfully self-advocate and push the system to make critical changes for future generations of students.
Two student-led organizations are already working to support our learning are Students Making a Change and Rise Free.