CURRENT AGE: 18
GRADE 11
PHILADELPHIA STUDENT UNION
Philadelphia Student Union
Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Student Union was founded in 1995 by a group of students concerned about the quality of their educations. Soon, other neighborhood students joined in search of better supplies, teachers and environments at their schools.
The union’s membership comes largely from north and west Philadelphia schools and some charter schools. Students organize not only to effect changes in their own schools, but also to improve conditions in all city schools. In particular, they have banded together to reduce the dropout rate in urban Philadelphia, which is about 50 percent.
Members meet with other students, then take their concerns to school boards, superintendents, business leaders and the media. About 3,500 students have been through the union’s leadership program.
In addition, the union broadcasts the city’s only youth-led radio station. It also makes use of other media (Web, blogs, video, print) to raise concerns and rally support.
Khalif Dobson and Phillip Pearce have been active with many of the union’s campaigns. Khalif, now a senior, started with the union three years ago. Phillip has been active for seven years, he is a staff organizer and alumnus of Philadelphia Student Union.
How would you describe your work?
KHALIF: I think the work at the Philadelphia Student Union is the developing of young leaders. Specifically when I came in my ninth grade year, I felt like I already knew a lot about what was going on. I knew exactly what was going on in my school, but I never had the opportunity to discuss it. (Now) I’m not only part of the discussions going on in my school, but I also have my opinion respected and have been given the tools to go about making the actual change in my school.
What specific projects are you working on?
KHALIF: We were successful in advocating for getting West Philadelphia High School a new building because West Philadelphia High School has been open for over 90 years now so it’s about time we got a new building.
PHILLIP: We have a bunch of campaigns going on across the board with our organization. We’re doing teacher quality and teacher equity campaign, which is a campaign about making sure that we have equitable distribution of teachers, and they make sure that people that are involved within the contract negotiations, which are going on right now, speak to the direct issue of equitable distribution.
Have there been some frustrations in your work?
KHALIF: I think one of the constant criticisms is that the youth don’t know what they’re talking about. In just about every meeting I’ve ever been to, it’s assumed that either I don’t know what I’m talking about, or I’m too young to understand what’s going on, or I’ll find out later down the line that what I’m saying is wrong, or that what I’m saying is not coming from me, that somebody’s feeding me my answers.
PHILLIP: I feel like organizing still isn’t something that’s cool. Like it’s cool to be a skateboarder, or it’s cool to be like a businessman or a doctor or a rapper, but like when we talk about somebody saying ‘Yo, let’s go raise some picket signs and like go to a meeting,’ those types of things aren’t seen as cool yet. And I feel like that’s one of the things that I would like for us, as an organization, to start working towards.
Copyright 2009 Y-Press