College youth empower high school youth

De Anza College invited about 200 high school students to help them realize goals of attaining higher education at the Youth Voices United for Change conference on Friday, Nov. 13.

Vasconcellos Institute for Democracy in Action hosted their annual leadership conference, Youth Voices United for Change, to motivate and educate local high school students to create positive changes in their lives and at their own schools, according to VIDA’s website.

“When you are in high school, it seems like everything in society is against you,” said LaQuisha Beckum, a psychology professor and coordinator of the conference. “How you see yourself means something.”

Workshops are hosted by over ten organizations, such as Hip Hop Congress, Public Allies Silicon Valley & San Francisco and San Jose Unified School District, and more. Beckum said it took her team about three months to organize the conference.

Seeing students smile and hearing they learned a lot through workshops, Beckum said she thought the event proceeded successfully.

Every year, she focuses on making the event more exciting by incorporating entertainment performances, such as music and spoken-word performances.

“I didn’t even know hip-hop started in New York,” said Jessica Jones, a high school student from Calero High School in San Jose.

She attended the hip-hop culture and history workshops and said it was something she couldn’t learn at her school.

Judith McDonald, also from Calero High School, said the spoken-word performance by Marlo Custodio, a keynote speaker and former president of DASB senate, was one of the most inspiring and memorable events at VIDA.

Custodio was one of the first students who partook in the conference when he was 16, coming to De Anza after graduating from his high school. He performed a speech about his past.

Some high school students, though they enjoyed the conference, still wonder how they can apply what they learned at the workshop in future.

“We just haven’t had capacity to go out and help them with what they want to do,” Beckum said. “Honestly, they just get day-off from school, but it’s not like that.”

The event held workshops for not only students but also high school teachers, to provide them opportunities to communicate with teachers from other high schools to coordinate projects of social justice and empowerment.