(KMJ)-Fresno – Area African American high school and middle school students heard from speakers in a day-long conference, in downtown Fresno which was setup to inspire the students.
Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified, along with the Fresno County Office Of Education partnered to host the “2016 African American Student Leadership & Educational Conference held at the Fresno Convention Center.
“Our students look forward to this, they knew that a marine corps general was going to be here talking this year and so there was a little bit of buzz in the community with our youth about it and we were just excited about that.” – Michael Hanson, FUSD Superintendent.
Nearly 900 African American students spent the day listening and learning from black leaders, including a brigadier general who told students that they are responsible for changing the narrative in their own lives to fight for their dreams and achieve both academic and personal success.
“Life is unfair, and so they’re going to have a lot of folks trying to tell them “no” trying to tell them which way they should go, which way they shouldn’t, they’ll be getting road blocks and if they’re steering the course, they can go around it, go over it, go under it, and I think those tools will help them do that.” – Marine Corps Brigadier General Terry Williams.
Also unveiled at the event were a number of life-size colorful displays telling stores about black leaders that will rotate throughout the Fresno Unified District’s libraries.
“So we will be moving them around from area to area, so that all of the students in Fresno Unified can interact with them and learn about someone they didn’t know.” – Angela Barfield, FUSD Community Education Specialist.
There were also workshops, and a college and career fair to help them on their way.
And the students’ take?
“It was just like there are certain things you have to do to be successful.”
“Overall, it’s pretty good you get a lot of helpful messages that you can apply to your everyday life.”
Students said they would like to see the conference take place more than once a year.
They are encouraged to continue the day’s theme with social media posts under the hashtag #changing the narrative.
