In this episode we speak with Tamia Dantzler & Dashley Concepcion. Tamia is an alum and Dashley is a current student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. In a previous episode we spoke with Frances Lucerna, founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. We heard from Frances about the school design and intentions, in this conversation Tamia & Dashley share with us their personal experience. They tell us what it has meant to be students at a school that makes them feel seen and heard.
This episode of Who Belongs? is part of a new series of podcasts focused on telling bridging stories. Throughout the series we’ll talk to leaders implementing bridging work and individuals who have experienced the bridging transformation. This project is led by OBI’s Blueprint for Belonging project (B4B), and hosted by program researcher Miriam Magaña Lopez. This project is funded by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Inc.
Transcript:
Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Welcome to today's episode of a new subseries of the podcast "Who Belongs." The Othering & Belonging Institute with financial support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is developing a series of podcasts to capture examples of bridging to belonging.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
We want a world where everyone belongs. So how do we get there? The answer? Bridging. Throughout the series, we will talk to leaders implementing bridging work and individuals who have experienced a bridging transformation. My name is Miriam Magaña Lopez, and I will be hosting today's episode.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Today, we will be speaking with Tamia Dantzler and Dashley Concepcion. Tamia is an alum, and Dashley is a current student at El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is a public school located in the South side community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
"El puente" is Spanish for "the bridge", which is exactly what the school is doing, creating bridges between the school and students, parents, and the community. In a previous episode, we spoke with Frances Lucerna, founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. We heard from Frances about the school design and intentions. Tamia and Dashley will share with us their personal experience being students at this school. They will let us know what it has meant to them to attend a school that has made them feel seen and heard.Tamia Dantzler:
My name is Tamia Dantzler. I was the valedictorian of class of 2018 of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. I'm currently enrolled in York College and I hope to either be a counselor or a teacher.Dashley Concepcion:
My name is Dashley. I'm a rising senior, and I'm involved in bike club since I was a freshman, muralista, peer forward, and epic group. And hopefully next year, I'm going to be part of SSS. That is a group of El Puente that help young, teenagers - girls - to get involved with the classmate and make friends and have somebody to support them in the school. A memorable experience for me...there can be many, but one that, for me, is when I paint a mural with the muralista group and the superintendent went and checked out the mural in the debate room, it was a proud moment for myself and something that I will ever and forever remember. So, yeah.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
That's really cool that you got to paint a mural at M.S. 50, which is the middle school, right?Dashley Concepcion:
Yeah.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Awesome. Tamia, can you share a memorable experience from El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice?Tamia Dantzler:
Well, my most memorable moment was actually the first time I ever...so we got the chance to celebrate [inaudible 00:03:11] Fest, which is basically to uplift women of color and also look back in the history of women who led movements and also made space for other women to talk about their situation. My favorite part of [inaudible 00:03:27] Fest is we have a thing called the red tint, which is basically, it gives a chance for all of us females to get together, talk about things that have been on our chest and just being able to just let it go and just be in a safe space to just talk about our struggles as one. And it's like a natural ritual that El Puente continue to do. Also, founded by Wanda, who was my principal when I was in school.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. It seems like El Puente has really provided a lot of amazing opportunities for y'all to get involved. Dashley, can you compare El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice to another school that you've been to, or maybe one that a friend attends to? I know you mentioned to me that your family came to the United States when you were - in 2017. So you started eighth grade in the U.S. and then quickly transitioned to high school. So I'm curious to hear your experience.Dashley Concepcion:
So, when I was in middle school, things weren't easy for me because - the teachers and the staff of the school were great. But, the people, the students, some of them were mean to non-English speakers. Like, I was new. I can barely say my name and say "good morning" to somebody because it was like, what, three months since I got here. So when I got to El Puente, everything was so different because even though you didn't know the language, everybody tried to speak your language or they translate by the phone, what they want to tell you, so you can feel integrated and stuff. And it was something that makes me feel like I was part of something. And I didn't have to be as scared and as stressful about the situation I was in. So it was really great.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. Tamia, when you talk to your friends about their experiences in other schools, what stands out to you about what made your experience at El Puente so different from other people's schooling?Tamia Dantzler:
Well, the main factor was the fact that they were family based. Kids are going to tend to have issues with another student or a student had an issue with a certain other student. But in our case, we were always able to create a family and holistic environment that allowed us to be able to communicate. So even if we had problems, there was always a way of which we were able to communicate in a safe room, with somebody we look up to as a mentor. So it was never, ever a chance to be able to have more fights in the school. So we were always able to come together, talk about the situation, and just have a great time with each other and any chance we ever have, we just always have fun together. Yeah. And compared to other schools, it was a lot of my other classmates - a lot of them came to El Puente High School. So it was just like, we kind of already had a friendship. And then we automatically were able to continue that friendship and turning into a family based.Tamia Dantzler:
But from what I heard from other schools, it just like there was constant fights. There's always arguments. And it wasn't a place for kids to express themselves. Without either visual arts or dance, but in El Puente we were able to get those options.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
It sounds like that El Puente really offers a lot of activities that maybe aren't offered in other schools, which you both mentioned allowed for students to feel involved and to feel like they're part of something. Can you talk a little bit about the types of programs that are available to students and how El Puente encourages students students to be involved?Tamia Dantzler:
So far, the ones that I've been a part of is SSS, which is the Strong Sophisticated Sisters, Peer Forward, which allowed us to help our fellow peers to get ready for their college stage. We also got mentoring groups, which is basically our - we have small mentoring groups, which is basically electives, but it's more of a chance for us to talk about some private situations in a smaller group, which is gender inclusive And some other programs that we have - we have a lot of events, more of like winter solstice, Unity Day, and Day of the Dead, which really allows us to showcase what we learn from semester to semester.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Dashley, is there anything else you want to add?Dashley Concepcion:
Yeah, we have so many days. Even though we don't celebrate every single date of independence of each country, we try to respect the day. And if we know, "Oh, today is Dominican Republic Independence Day." We try to be celebrating our own and stuff.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
That's awesome that your school is intentional about recognizing people from countries and their own cultures. My next question for you all. Francis introduced me to the El Puente practice of sacred circles. It seems like a great practice in theory, but I'm curious to hear about your experience participating in sacred circles. And what does it mean to you?Dashley Concepcion:
Well, for me participating in sacred circles, it's like a tool to meet new people because in the circles, they ask you questions, like, "How is your day?" And also like, "What color do you feel your soul is feeling today?" Like, something you have to think about it and that you have never think about it in your life. And you get to know more about you and you get to know more about the people around you. And you get to know people that have the same interest or the same point of view that you have. And that's a tool I use when I got here to make new friends and stuff.Dashley Concepcion:
And to think about myself because now, every day, somebody asks you, "If you were a kind of bread, what kind of bread would you be? And why?" You know, it's something that you have to think about it and have a reason to think about it. So, yeah, it's something that helps to get to know you better and to know the people around you. So, it's pretty good.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
What about you, Tamia?Tamia Dantzler:
Well, when it came to my first time doing the sacred circle, it was with Hector Sanchez when - not the principal, but the history teacher, Hector Sanchez - when we had our first circle up. And basically it's kind of uncomfortable for me at first because the fact that I'm more to myself. So El Puente makes sure that our voices are heard and making sure that we know how to be able to talk out loud without being so scared and not being in the shadows, try to bring us into the light. So the circles allow us to be not only be seen face to face, but also to help us get out of our own comfort zones, to be able to have these type of conversations with one another. Sacred circles are also ways in which we like sometimes have small debates. It's a way in which we like able to hear each other out, listen, and get feedback. So it's constant practicing how to interact with our human beings in certain situations.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Tamia, I know you mentioned that in the beginning, you felt a little scared to be part of the circles. Cause it seems like these sacred circles provide an opportunity for people to bring themselves and share about themselves. And sometimes that feels uncomfortable. I wonder if you can both talk about how you do feel after you have a sacred circle?Dashley Concepcion:
Well, yeah, as Tamia said, you don't really want to talk about yourself in a circle. But after, you feel like, oh, I'm part of this because everybody's talking and if I don't talk, I'm going to be outside of this circle. So it feels like something that you are part of when everybody speaking, get to know each other, like yeah, as I said before.Tamia Dantzler:
Well, once I'm in the circle, I feel a bit more confident with myself and what I'm saying. When I leave, I feel adrenaline that just starting to calm down after sitting - like being able to have the many conversations that we do have, because we talk from about what's going outside, what's happening inside, what's happening around us. So it just gave me a chance to just be one with everybody. So it's allowing me to be able to hear everyone out and also understand that we have those same struggles [inaudible 00:13:51] before hearing each other is one way of us just being together. We all are unified, we're here, and although we're nervous, you can push through and it's going to be okay.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I also understand that instead of calling your instructors "teachers," you all call them "facilitators." One of the reasons they're called facilitators is to acknowledge the agency that students have in their own education. Instead of a teacher lecturing you and being the person with all knowledge, they acknowledge that everyone that comes in, including students, has lived experiences that can benefit from the educational space. Can you describe how this changes the way that you've learned compared to maybe a traditional school setting?Dashley Concepcion:
So, I think you can choose the side that you are in. For example, if you're doing an essay and you have to pick the blue or the red side and you pick the blue one, right? If, we were like teacher and students, the teacher usually would tell me, why would I have to choose the red one and why it's better and why and stuff. But I think our facilitators, they help us to know this blue side better and tell us more options of why this is the right side to choose. And they help us. And they contribute to our opinions and let us be ourself in everything that we do.Tamia Dantzler:
They also just don't want a power dynamic to be formed because in traditional schools, you know that they're teachers, so you listen to them. You have to give them respect. But at El Puente, they made it where they kind of have to earn the respect and then we end up giving it to them because we are creating a mentor to a mentee. So even though they are our teacher, they are also our mentors where we can talk to them. Sometimes we even call them our moms and dads because some of us don't have a mom or a stable parent. So we look at them as our older sibling slash parent slash mentor.Tamia Dantzler:
El Puente - the school building, once you step in, the first thing you notice is that the teachers don't have Mr. or Mrs. You call them by either their first name or their last name, which they give you the option to choose, which allows you to just feel more comfortable around them. Not feeling like, "I have no power." Like, they have all the power and I just have to obey by their rules. No, we create the rules together. We're able to have the teachers teach us, we teach them. We basically learn from each other. We use our experience in the classroom so that we can create better conversations, better talks about certain situations that may happen in the future or are happening now.Dashley Concepcion:
Yeah, and adding what Tamia says, we also create like a trust bond with our teachers. So it's like a friend teaching you something that they know and you don't know. And if you don't understand something, you don't feel ashamed to ask because you see this person, like your cousin or like your uncle or like your godmother. And you're like, "Can you help me to do this? Because I don't understand." And you know that you can trust them then, and they don't going to judge you or something because you trust each other. Or I feel like.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Mm hmm. Tamia, you mentioned that, in different classroom settings, you are encouraged to bring your own experience to learning. I wonder if you or Dashley, you too, if there is a moment or a story that you recall where you did insert your own experience into your learning.Tamia Dantzler:
Even though we have a curriculum, we can constantly add or change it. The teacher either changes it, depending on like the classroom, the vibe, the energy and allow us to actually take what we already know. Like we do - not making it sure like we don't know anything. They actually push us to use what we already know into the classroom. So if I give an example, it's talking about certain situations that happened in my home life. If I ever went through anything, we were able to use that and also connect it to a book that we're reading so that we can build a better bond with the book and being able to spew out better opinions, better options, better answers. The more you feel connected to anything you're able to give your best and your all. And that's what El Puente has pushed for during the time I've been with them.Dashley Concepcion:
It can be about history. It can be about English or about science. They always put a question that has to relate to you. Even though you don't find a way to relate to you, the question is there, like how this book represent you, how you can compare yourself to the main character. Have you ever seen this sickness relate to you? How can you relate to this history moment? How can you speak about yourself in this time? And they try to always make the focus on you so you can feel like everything that they are teaching you or they are trying to teach you, you have something to deal with you. And that is important for you.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Frances also outlined all of the other structures and programs in place to ensure the students feel like they belonged in the school from the moment they walk in. She mentioned students being greeted at the door, small classes that allow for relationship building between facilitators and students, being able to talk to a facilitator using their first name, among other practices. How did these practices foster belonging to you?Dashley Concepcion:
So for me coming from a middle school for the first time I came calling everybody Mister and Miss and people were like, "No, honey. We don't do this here. You call me by my name." And I was like, "Okay."Dashley Concepcion:
And as I said before, I didn't know any English. And they were like, "I speak poquito español, so don't worry." I didn't understand. But they tried to help me. And I was like, "Oh my God, these people, one, are crazy. And two, they are lovely." And then also, my sister was at the school at the time and she's like super smart and everything. And I was quiet. In my mind, I was like, I'm going to be the quiet one. I'm not going to talk. And then they realized I was her sister. And then they start away, like, "Oh my God, you are family. You're everything." I was like, "Okay, we just have one day here. Take it easy." And it was so warm, welcome to me. And I feel like many of the students, I know many Spanish speakers that feel like uncomfortable in middle school because we don't really have this space where you can speak Spanish without being judged, like, "Oh, this is America. Speak Spanish and that stuff."Dashley Concepcion:
So, and when we went to El Puente, I went to a El Puente with three of my friends. They feel great. They don't even feel like the necessity. Like they are outside of our country and they feel like they are good. They don't feel the pressure of have to talk in a language that they barely know. So it's something that help us a lot to continue to have a faith in school because many of them wanted to quit the school because they feel like it's not for them because they didn't really get something. But in El Puente they try to make you understand that you have a way to go to college, that the language doesn't matter, and that you can still learn, even though you have three months here. It doesn't matter.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Did you feel, or do you feel like El Puente is providing you with support that you need to achieve your dreams?Tamia Dantzler:
I definitely do. Cause I'm in the process right now where I'm in between. I want to do counseling, but I also want to be a teacher. So I'm in between, but because of my experience with El Puente and the constant motivation that they gave me. And so I would need to like explore all my options. I feel like El Puente has given me - even when we sometimes didn't have all the materials, even though we are a high school for social justice, with that, we still didn't have every equipment. Like we were sometimes low on certain materials or computers, you know?Tamia Dantzler:
So we had to work with what we had and basically, they taught us how to be more resilient in learning how to use the materials that are around us. Like even in the art rooms, sometimes we might be low on materials, but because we were very hands on from people, we were able to figure out a way to make magic every time, to make beautiful magic, where it can come to our events, which comes to how we are able to interact with new ways of learning.Tamia Dantzler:
They taught us how to use music in order to create new lessons for ourselves. Even practicing new rhythms, learning how to write, understand books. So I feel like El Puente just gave us a whole lot of tools that didn't have to come from directly from a textbook and came from just knowing how to do life.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
It's pretty cool that even though you didn't have all of the physical resources that you needed, that with enough emotional support and support from the facilitators, you felt like you had everything you needed. That's pretty cool. And what about you Dashley? Do you feel like El Puente is providing you with the resources and support that you need to achieve your dreams?Dashley Concepcion:
Oh yeah. Since I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer or do something related to that. And when I went El Puente, I realized how many problems the world has. Every single point of view have a problem and stuff. So I feel like there is a lot of things you can fight for. And also, the teachers were so good at what they were doing, that they almost made me quit my thing about being a lawyer and I start to think, for a time, I may be a teacher. Why not? This seems pretty good. But they support me. They be like, "You got this. You're going to be a great lawyer. We going to be there for you if you need something. If you need research, you just come to us and we are going to be here for you." And I'm like, "Oh my God, thank you."Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I want you to both think to a moment at El Puente, a moment where you felt like, I belong here." This is my school. These are my peers. These are my facilitators. Think back to that moment. And can you describe it to me? And how did it make you feel?Dashley Concepcion:
When I saw them again in person, most of them, in the graduation of my sister, I was like, "Oh my God. I miss these people so much. I can't wait to go back to school in person and be with them again." Because I was feeling like something was missing because without school, I have like this disorder in the schedule. My life was here, my sleep was messed up. And I was like, "Oh my God. I can't wait to go to school to get my life back in reality."Dashley Concepcion:
So I felt like I need to be there like I have. And I want to be there and I want to go back and I can't wait to go back. So it's something that I have never feel for a school. Like, "Oh my God, I want to go to school." I have never say that. But now I feel like I can't wait for September to come so we can go back to school and to be with my people again. So yeah, it's that moment that I realized I really like to be here. I really like this place. Yeah.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you. Dashley. What about you, Tamia?Tamia Dantzler:
Well, the first moment it was actually - this is very like, like deep in memories - is when I went to a principal meeting with Joe Mitunez and we were basically able to - I was in my sophomore year and it was just like, oh my God, I was asked to go with another teacher to go to a principal meeting. I was like, oh my God, I'm a youth member that can talk about how to improve the school building and talk about the sites that El Puente have offered that allowed me to completely grow.Tamia Dantzler:
And it allowed more kids to join in. Because even after that, the principal meeting, we had more kids that joined 211, which is El Puente Leadership Center. We call it 211, because that's the address of it. But it was like, "Oh my God. They want to hear what I have to say. I am important. I'm supposed to be here." And that was one out of the many moments that I had where like, "Oh, they want me here. I belong here. I'm here, I'm present."Miriam Magaña Lopez:
It's really beautiful to hear that you both feel such a close attachment to your school and your experience. I wonder, are peers that you went to school with, or actually are going to school with now, do they also feel similar to you?Dashley Concepcion:
Yeah, as I said before, I have friends that they - in middle school - you don't even know what you want in middle school. They were like, "I don't think the school is for me and stuff." And now they are going to be seniors with me. And I'm like, "Wow, what you were talking about? And you are almost graduating yourself. You just have to make it this year." And they feel comfortable. And I think if some of my friends, they were put in another high school, they wouldn't even finish school, sadly, because I feel like they wouldn't have the support they have here. And they wouldn't have the comfort and the trust they have in El Puente to help them.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you. It's interesting. How both of you sort of share this experience, how in the beginning, students are initially scared to come to El Puente. And I wonder if that has to do with the way that you were seen by the facilitators, that you were seen as individuals with potential, and we're going to push you to get to your potential. And that can be scary if you've never experienced that before.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
So I'm glad that you both went through that and well, Dashley, you're still going through that process. It seems like it's really helped you in your after high school life of being able to feel confident in fulfilling your full potential. I am curious because you both have been - Dashley, you've been in this school for three years and Tamia, you graduated from this school. What advice would you give to teachers or other school administrators outside of El Puente to make a school like yours? Like what is important? What do they need to do to make sure the students feel welcomed?Dashley Concepcion:
Create a trust bond with the students. Because I feel like so many people try to be professional that they don't feel like they can connect with the students sometimes. So they be hard on people and they don't try to understand the student and it can be stressful and so many things going on and you don't have nobody to talk in a school. And if you have problem in your house and you have problem in school, it can be this bomb in your head that is going to blow up in any moment.Dashley Concepcion:
So I think that teachers should create more trust bond with the students because you don't know what is going on in their houses or why they are like that, and what is happening and what they can concentrate in the school. And you are being so professional that you are just putting F or failing the students without even knowing why they are failing. So sometimes it's better, like create a trust bond, and then try to be professional or you can be both. Why not?Tamia Dantzler:
I totally agree with Dashley. I feel like it's a key point for a teacher to get to know their students, their name, what they've been going through. I know that some teachers out there are probably going to be like, "I have to deal with a lot of students within like a day." We are a smaller school compared to other schools. So getting to know all the kids, it might be a little bit harder, but the more you try, the kids will see that. And then they will gravitate to you and being more open, even the ones that are so called, the trouble kids. The trouble kids are not really trouble. They just needed somebody to listen to them, just to be somebody that they can just talk to about certain situations.Tamia Dantzler:
So being more strict with the curriculum, learning, pushing all this information to them, have them talk about their situations and incorporate it into the curriculum. There's always space and room for you to incorporate the person to the work that you are trying to share. There's always a way to teach them, even though sometimes it feels like, "Oh, I never seen it done before." You can still look - there's videos out there. You can also talk to other teachers, trying to see the best options on how to talk to a kid or either teach them new ideas. Yeah. Sometimes you got to go past your limit. Sometimes you got to go past yourself so that you can reach others.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
That was Tamia Dantzler and Dashley Concepcion. Thank you so much for your time and to our listeners, please check out our other podcast where we discuss belonging and bridging in more detail. For more resources and curriculums on belonging and bridging, please go to belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b. That is slash letter B number four, letter B. Until next time.
