On March 31, 2017, a Student Voices/Breaking Borders forum was held at Molloy College in Rockville Centre. “Breaking Borders” is a student-driven collaboration designed to encourage inter-district dialogue among diverse Long Island students. Last fall it began its work with a meeting between students from the predominately white Syosset School District, and the historically diverse Freeport School District. In addition to Syosset and Freeport high schools, the program’s reach expanded on the 31st to include ERASE Racism’s Student Voices project participants, Elmont H.S. and Molloy College – a true community partnership.
Over fifty opinionated, articulate , diverse students “broke borders” under one roof on the Molloy Campus for the purpose of opening communication, candidly sharing perspectives, and moving forward with greater awareness, empathy, knowledge, and information. In contrast to the segregated learning environments on Long island, by design, the students were strategically assigned to five diverse dialogue groups representing various ethnicities, religions, races, and genders. Within each conversation, students shared their personal journeys and provided a human face to policies related to DACA, deportation, “Muslim bans”, racism, affirmative action, and segregation on Long Island. David Steinberg, Syosset HS administrator and founder of the Breaking Borders initiative, described the importance of getting students to feel a bit uncomfortable in taking deep dives into their feelings and perspectives, and then, to share them in a safe space. “Getting to understanding through the misunderstandings is the goal.”
During the break-out sessions, the rich conversations were facilitated and exclusively driven by students; faculty were busy huddling in hallways excitedly making “cross-border” connections and planning next steps.
During the student debriefing session, Professor Melissa McCardle, Molloy College expressed her awe and admiration at how successfully students were able to “touch a depth of their own experience and openly share it with others they met for the first time.”
Moving forward, ERASE Racism hopes to continue collaborative efforts and create safe spaces to discuss vital and important issues.
"We can't discriminate against anybody... We need to respect them... We need to realize that we are all human and we all have human rights, fundamental human rights that cannot be denied." - Student