Inspired by MSAN, Local Students Organize Conference

April 8, 2013

A group of high school students in Verona, Wisconsin, inspired after attending the Minority Student Achievement Network’s Annual Student Conference in Phoenix in October 2012, organized a two-day community building and leadership training event on April 8 and 9.

At MSAN’s conference, the students met Calvin Terrell, the founder of Social Centric, an organization providing education and training to enhance human interactions and global progress. Over the winter, they decided to put together an event where Terrell could deliver his message of empowering youth to create safe spaces in high school communities to their classmates in the Verona Area School District and their peers across Dane County. Thanks in part to a grant from MSAN, the students successfully raised enough money to launch the event.

On Monday, April 8, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Verona Area High School Performing Arts Center at 300 Richard St., Terrell will host a leadership training event for invited students. From 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, also in the Performing Arts Center, Terrell will give a keynote presentation, followed by breakout sessions facilitated by student leaders. On Tuesday evening, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Terrell and the student leaders will co-host a community forum at the Allied Community Center, at 4619 Jenewein Road in Fitchburg. The leadership training and Tuesday’s keynote and breakout are for invited students only, but Tuesday’s community forum is open to the public.

The Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) is a national coalition of 25 multiracial, suburban-urban school districts that have come together to study and eliminate achievement gaps in their districts. MSAN is housed within the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at UW-Madison's School of Education.