BFS
Our Strategic Vision

Upper Schoolers Advocate for Higher Education for All

After learning about the Education from the Inside Out Coalition‘s
advocacy efforts through their Social Justice Service Learning course, Upper School students Patonya P., Jade H., Grace M.,
Sierra V., and Abby M. chose to participate in Higher Education for All
Month, sharing why higher education is important to them.

 
As part of this
month-long campaign in January 2014, BFS students
shared the reasons why and how
higher education impacts our lives positively, and
were featured in posts on EIO Coalition social media outlets.  
Access to higher education is a human right, and denying access is a part of the larger system of exclusion. Jade and Patonya support #HigherEd4All and connect the dots for us: 

“It is almost impossible to achieve any kind of great success without education behind you, for higher education gives you recognition and the ability to impact communities and others around you. We are 10th grade students at Brooklyn Friends School and are from Brooklyn, NY. We have chosen to study the School to Prison pipeline as part of our Social Justice Service Learning course and have been learning more about the importance of higher education.”


These students chose to have
their voices heard in order to help effect policy change and raise
awareness.
Their advocacy efforts are helping to spread the word about
why we need to increase access to higher education for students during
and after prison. We have learned that access to higher education transforms lives, reduces recidivism and poverty, increases employment, and strengthens
communities. 
In the final week of #HigherEd4All Month, Abby, Grace and Sierra shared their statement about what access to higher education means to them:
 
The Education from the Inside Out Coalition is a nonpartisan collaborative of advocates whose mission is to remove barriers to higher education facing students in prison. The Coalition seeks to remove statutory and practical educational barriers for individuals with criminal justice involvement by educating policymakers and advocating for policy change around funding for higher education in prisons and criminal history screenings on college applications.
 
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