Local students recently attended a national conference on minority achievement.
The sixth-annual National Student Leadership Conference of the Minority Student Achievement Network was held Sept. 28 to Sept. 30. in Cambridge, Mass. Among its participants were six representatives from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
The conference is a platform for students to learn from their peers and offer recommendations to increase achievement through school intervention.
Seniors Deryle Daniels and Allen Mask and Junior Yasmin Romero Sanchez represented Chapel Hill High School. Seniors Ashley Harrington and Camille Jawwaad and Sophomore Michael Belden came from East Chapel Hill High School.
"We discussed the achievement gap and interacted with other suburban communities like Chapel Hill, where the overall performance of the district is good but the minorities still lag behind," said Daniels, who attended his third leadership conference.
"We got to see other black youth that shared the same goals as us and it helped to break down the bad stereotypes the media puts out," he said. "They valued academics and doing well in school."
Many said the highlight of the conference was a seminar given by Charles Ogletree, a professor at Harvard Law School. The students discussed their problems and also heard the professor speak.
"One thing we learned, problems are different with each area, we have to identify the problem in respect to our area," Mask said.
Despite having a busy schedule, the students had time to relax at a talent show where they heard performances of spoken word. They also had the opportunity to do some sightseeing and visit Boston University, Harvard, and MIT.
