Community Studies students participate in Facing Race conference in Atlanta, Georgia

With scholarship support from the Community Studies Program, two undergraduate majors attended the November, 2016 bi-annual Facing Race conference in Atlanta, Georgia, sponsored by the racial justice organization Race Forward.  V. Plotkin stepped away from her full-time field study with the Brooklyn Movement Center to attend the conference, about which she said, “I came to Facing Race a day after the presidential election, unsure of my future in activism and my belief in change. This conference restored my belief that justice and freedom are still possible, provided a vision of what social justice organizing could look like, and gave me the promise of liberation. This promise is stronger than hope; it is a mandate calling me to action now.” Nazareth Velasco travelled a longer distance to attend Facing Race, coming from her full-time field study in Mexico, where she was working with Schools for Chiapas (“our most positive experience with an intern,” said her supervisor).  Nazareth commented that “my experience with Facing Race allowed me to further develop my opinions on familiar topics in the social justice movement and expanded my mind to consider other perspectives on questions I thought I already knew the answer to. I was able to let go of my previous idea of the ‘community I should be serving’ and expanded the ways in which I move forward.” Read more Plotkin's experience and Velasco's experience.