SADIE NASH RELAUNCHES MIDDLE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMMING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH WHEELS NYC
As part of Sadie Nash Leadership Project’s 20th anniversary commitment to serve more young people, we are excited to share about our expansion working with middle school-age youth through a new partnership with Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS NYC) & Futures Ignite.
The mission of WHEELS is to work with families to prepare each Pre-K through twelfth grade student academically, emotionally, intellectually and socially to succeed in the college of their choice and beyond. Much of their mission and work is supported by Futures Ignite, a non-profit organization that serves to uplift students and their communities in Washington Heights and the greater Northern Manhattan area. Futures Ignite works closely with students by providing college and career counseling, alumni support, and enrichment partnerships and programming, such as Sadie Nash.
As Sadie Nash Leadership Project’s first middle school partnership in several years due to pandemic-related delays and closing, this is the perfect partnership for reengaging the SNLP middle school curriculum and supporting young people at that critical stage of development. The comprehensive support offered by WHEELS includes an impactful middle school curriculum, which explores leadership and feminism, and can be carried on beyond Sadie Nash afterschool programming. We are so grateful to the teams at WHEELS and Futures Ignite for partnering with us in this work.
Programming is already underway, and the best insights come from SNLP’s Partnership Manager Denise Quijada (she/her) and Lead Faculty for WHEELS Isabela Bulacia (she/her). We spoke to them both about the partnership’s origins, their vision for this partnership, and to hear how participants are already thriving. Read on for their interview!
SNLP: We’re thrilled to have co-created this partnership with WHEELS and to have the opportunity to work with middle school-aged youth again, or as we refer to them- Nashers. Thank you both for your leadership in managing this program! Can you talk through our model and how participants experience our social justice education curriculum?
Isabela Bulacia: Our middle school curriculum focuses on cultivating leadership and community building skills. It emphasizes the significance of vulnerability in creating a safer space. While we discuss the injustices that affect the Nashers on a daily basis, we also focus on taking care of oneself, while unlearning unhealthy ideologies that have been taught to us by society.
Denise Quijada: Yes, this curriculum is really focused on building community, increasing self-confidence and self-esteem, exploring healthy relationships, diving into strategies for managing stress, and leadership development in a way that is age appropriate for middle school youth. Nashers explore how society treats them and those like them and how they can imagine a better world for themselves and the communities they belong to.
SNLP: Can you speak to what Sadie Nash leadership Project and WHEELS hope to accomplish through this programming?
Denise Quijada: Beyond the impact we hope to make with this first group of Nashers, both WHEELS and Sadie Nash Leadership Project hope to continue building a robust and long-lasting partnership. Sadie Nash is committed to being a comprehensive resource to the WHEELS community, especially their young women and gender-expansive youth of color.
SNLP: How did this partnership come about and how did each organization determine that this was the right fit?
Isabela Bulacia: We were aware that the young people participating in the WHEELS program were curious to learn about social justice issues in more depth. In planning conversations, Joice Kim, who is the youth development coordinator at WHEELS/Futures Ignite, expressed that many of the WHEELS students, particularly in middle school, are beginning to wrestle with conversations surrounding identity, gender, relationships, stress, and more. They wanted a partner who could help them provide programming that offered restorative practices in the classroom in order to create an environment where the students feel their concerns are being heard, as well as feeling empowered and encouraged to lead in their school and communities.
Denise Quijada: Yes, Tené [SNLP’s Executive Director] has been in community with WHEELS Executive Director Molly Delano for many years, and they were both eager to find a way to build meaningful social justice educational programming together. Sadie Nash had done so before the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re glad to be able to re-engage this curriculum safely and in such an ideal partnership.
SNLP: And can you each speak to how this partnership differs from others that Sadie Nash Leadership Project has established in the past?
Denise Quijada: Aside from the age-group, this partnership differs in that the WHEELS environment is already rich with positive and empowering messaging for their students. Usually for partnerships, SNLP comes in and exposes students, for the first time, to the world of social justice and all the different concepts and histories around racial and gender justice. With WHEELS, evidenced by the numerous posters and student art projects seen down every hallway and every floor of the school, there is already an environment where students are encouraged to explore racial and gender justice. When WHEELS students come to SNLP, they want to get deeper into the content and really explore how their lived experiences relate to the environment around them.
Isabela Bulacia: The SNLP and WHEELS program differs from SNLP’s other programs in that these Nashers are already familiar with one another. WHEELS NYC is a pre-k through twelfth grade school, so students who are a part of this program have already built a relationship—sometimes for years! Since day one, I could immediately feel the strong sense of community these new Nashers brought, and that definitely helped to establish a collaborative environment.
SNLP: What skills do you hope young people develop in this program, and how can they engage those skills to change their lives, as well as positively affect their families and communities?
Isabela Bulacia: I hope the young people in the program learn that there is no singular path to being a leader and that it’s okay to not know the answer to everything. I hope they understand that what is important is that they are willing to learn and work as a collective, and that this approach, applied through an intersectional lens, is key to dismantling systemic issues that affect their lives. Also, I hope they understand that their lived experiences are knowledge, and that this knowledge does not need academic terminology to be validated in order for them to participate in any space.
Denise Quijada: Absolutely, and I hope that the WHEELS Nashers develop skills to advocate for themselves and the communities they belong to. My goal, for any partnership Nasher, is that they learn that there are safe spaces that exist for them and that they can share the things they’ve learned and experienced with others, especially family and friends.
SNLP: Even though this program is in its early days, we’ve heard a few stories about all the exciting work already happening. Isabela, can you share any highlights?
Isabela Bulacia: I adore my Nashers! We are already half way through programming, which is only ten sessions. As I mentioned before, the Nashers have already known each for years, so it was endearing that the Nashers accepted me openly into their WHEELS family. I admire their vulnerability as they share personal experiences with me after only knowing me for 5 weeks. Today in class, for example, we asked them, “When do you feel safe?” Many of the Nashers expressed they felt safe in this space we’d created together. I was honored that they shared intimate moments to create a space where they are validated and able to ask questions without judgment. All the students adamantly stated that they would stand up for their peers to ensure that they felt included.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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