Learn Magazine: Spring 2021, Issue 2

It was 30 minutes into the very first meeting of teenagers from across Western New York. Students were typing their thoughts about school reform and change on bright yellow, orange and pink virtual sticky notes. The cyber bulletin board on the Zoom call was filling up with their ideas about school change.

Kier Bishop, 14, made his mother proud and impressed her with his confidence and focus as he transformed his freshman year grades last semester. He had a rocky beginning as the pandemic shifts set in. When he started high school last fall at Frederick Law Olmstead, he was making a transition from a smaller Catholic school to a public school that he was not able to step inside of. Nor did he get to meet any of his classmates or teachers as he finished his first year.

A unique lesson in community and learning emerged last summer when the pandemic stretched on after the semester ended and GSE began supporting the virtual summer camps set up by Buffalo’s Say Yes to Education Program to keep students engaged while school was out.

After finishing his degree in criminology and sociology as the pandemic started last spring, Anthony Vargas, BA ’20, enrolled in GSE’s higher education and student affairs master’s program.

After the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools, Sarah A. Robert, GSE associate professor of learning and instruction, and specialist in school food politics, began volunteering with Seeding Resilience. This Buffalo coalition of community members, nonprofits, schools and government—organized spring 2020 to address food inequities highlighted by the pandemic—aligned with Robert’s research.

As part of a new UB effort to help faculty reimagine their courses to include more diverse perspectives, two GSE professors shared their expertise and ideas with colleagues as one of a series of “Inclusive Pedagogy” online seminars organized by UB’s Office of Inclusive Excellence.

About 650 people, including an estimated 200 UB students, listened to five authors, activists and educators share insights about reshaping the education system to be less punitive and more responsive to young people from all backgrounds and transform schools into places where everyone thrives.