In this episode we speak with Frances Lucerna. Frances is the founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice is a public school located in the Southside community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York City. 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. Frances shares how she and other community leaders created and designed a school environment that fosters a true sense of belonging among all students and their families.
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
Frances Lucerna:
When you walk into a school building, what do you see that tells you this is a place where I see me in it. I see my children. I see my community. I see my family. I see my culture. I see my language.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Welcome to today's episode of a new sub series of the podcast Who Belongs? The Othering & Belonging Institute with financial support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is developing a series of podcast to capture examples of bridging to belonging. 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 the work and individuals who have experienced a transformation of bridging. My name is Miriam Magaña Lopez, and I'll be hosting today's episode. Today, we'll be speaking with Frances Lucerna. Frances is the founding principal of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice and current president of El Puente community based organization. The community organization was founded in 1982 in response to the growing violence drug use and lack of support in the Southside community of Williamsburg and Brooklyn. Now it also includes a community high school and a middle school. Frances will share with us how she and other community leaders created a school environment that fosters a true sense of belonging among all students and their families.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Frances, thank you so much for joining. I am really excited to talk to you about your school and your organization. It's my understanding that El Puente began as a community based organization providing support for young people outside of the school system. However, 10 years after its inception, you also co-founded your own high school which you named El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. Can you tell me what is unique about this school?Frances Lucerna:
Well, it's great, first and foremost, to be with you Miriam and yes, the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, as you said, really was an opportunity that we received 10 years, almost 11 years after we started El Puente in 1982. By that time, we had really developed a model for holistic community and youth development with our young people, a model that really engaged young people in terms of the development of their body, their mind, and their spirit always, and very, very closely connected to the empowerment of themselves as leaders and to change making change in the community. And so just as we were motivated by a commitment to self-determination when we founded El Puente in 1982, I think the same motivation was what motivated us to really make the decision to open our public school, the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice in 1993. It came out of a very unique partnership and initiative here in New York city, between the Department of Education and the nonprofit public schools for New Visions and it gave an opportunity for new schools to be developed out of partnership that were diverse partnerships.Frances Lucerna:
They could be partnerships between parents and educators, universities, and schools of higher learning, unions could develop a vision for a school and also community based organizations and so we were approached by Naomi Barbara, who was one of the directors of New Visions, to apply and this is an important piece to this because up until that point, we were pretty much known for our advocacy and our organizing with regards to the community, to the schools in our community district 14. And so we were pretty much more known for closing schools or boycotting because of practices that were totally and completely, in some cases as in PS 16, unconstitutional but also with regard to what we were clear was not happening for our young people. They were some of the most lowest performing and most violent schools in the city at the time.Frances Lucerna:
So when we made this decision to open up the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, it really was out of that. Our commitment to self-determination of the community, we came at it as community organizers and really saw this as an opportunity to take what we knew was powerful, transformative, and worked in terms of supporting young people and in a very powerful way, in a three to nine setting to do this in a nine to three setting and really imagine and create this new vision of what school could be, coming out of the context of a community based on the values and the principles and the culture and the history of the people in the community, in our Latino community, and also driven by a mission and the mission was to inspire and nurture leaders of peace and justice.Frances Lucerna:
So that became the impetus for even the name, the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice. Little known to us at the time, this would be one of the first public schools in the country dedicated to human rights and social justice. And so there in lies what the impetus was, but the process was really one that was really dynamic and really challenging because we were working now within the construct of traditional schools, right? And really being able to really think, as we always did, really out of the box but from a place of what we had understood, that was important in terms of a school really being not a institution in a community, but a community institution, really gave us the guidelines and the context for some, I think, key decisions that first and foremost, the staff of the school would be El Puente staff themselves, many of us who had developed this model for young people and could translate that, also make sure that it was consistent with our principles and our mission.Frances Lucerna:
And those principles, we have 12 fundamental principles but the key principles were creating community, love and caring, mastery, and peace and justice and that this school would be a school where the primary focus in the fundamental practice would be building relationships with young people.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you, that's a really great introduction to your school and it sounds like an amazing opportunity for young people. I'm curious, you mentioned it just now, the word "facilitator" which in traditional settings would be "teachers". Can you talk about why you use that framing?Frances Lucerna:
Well, we use the framing because I think, again, it came out of this intentionality in terms of making sure that everything that we were going to implement in the school really reflected what we believed and what we wanted to really be able to reinforce in terms of the experience for our young people and our community and our families. So we clearly saw ourselves and really looking at the power paradigm that language brings and so this idea of teacher and what it then connoted for all of us in our or lived experience of school in an institutional context, was that there was someone in front of the room who had all of the knowledge and we were here as just passive recipients to whatever that information was. We were going to flip that and really make a declaration that we all come with a lived experience, and also rich in knowledge that could be and should be the centerpiece of then how curriculum and all of the experiences of learning would then be centered and grounded in.Frances Lucerna:
So we, in essence, were facilitators of a process of creating reciprocity in this learning experience that again, first and foremost, was grounded in our lived experience, in the culture, in the language, in the history, in the tradition of our young people, even in most important, I think when we made a decision, in terms of the youth culture, the culture that they were coming out of, the culture that really spoke to them. And so very early on, the integration of hip hop, the integration of spoken word and graffiti, was really important in terms of really integrating that as a way and a very powerful statement of what I think is the most important thing in terms of this conversation and what we did was this real message to young people that we see you, that we see each other and we see each other in our totality and in that, we honor, we celebrate and we explore that lived experience that we're bringing to this setting.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Yeah. It's so beautiful to hear you talk about the intention that you put in every decision to transform this school and this educational environment because students spend the majority of their lives in a classroom and oftentimes that intentionality of how the relationships between educators and students and the physical space is not really thought out. And sometimes we cause some unintended consequences that we don't have to talk about, but it's just really lovely to hear about how you created this amazing school, basically out of nothing. And it brings me to my next question because you also, in 2014, you acquired a middle school, Middle School 50 and I'm curious to hear about your experience transforming Middle School 50, which was an existing school into a school using your model that focuses on your values and creates a true sense of belonging among all students. How would you compare that to creating the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice?Frances Lucerna:
Well, that was, you know, and, and there, and there, I, again, it lies what happens so often here at El Puente because we are a community institution that's been here for 40 years, is this full circle, right? When we created the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, it was recognized as one of the first community schools in the country. For the obvious reasons of that, it was created by a community based organization. So in every sense, it was what I think is still the promise of what a community school can be and should be. And I think that we all recognize as we would developing the academy and what now have very clear definitions in terms to describe culturally relevant or responsive pedagogy, social emotional learning, leadership development, all of those things mentoring, all of things were just pretty much inherent in the model that we then integrated in the school, but it was a school that we created, right?Frances Lucerna:
We always understood and then certainly I understood that the great challenge would be then how to translate that to an existing school. MS 50 was probably the most opportunity that we could have. This was a school, a middle school in our community that we had been involved with because we had a beacon program in that school since 1996. Right? So we were working in afterschool context. The school by 2014, I think, became symbolic because what was happening in New York city was this process of, an assessment of underutilized schools, particularly in communities like ours, right? Los Sures. That then were slated foreclosure but in the process of that, we then rented or co-located with charter schools and MS 50 became one of those schools for many different reasons. The school was in trouble, it was failing, the attendance had become very, very critical, critically low, there was just so many factors in terms of morale and what was going on in the school.Frances Lucerna:
And then we were able to place and have appointed a principal because the principal was retiring, that was there, have a principal who already was in the school, was known to us, someone who really clearly was very familiar with the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, really wanted to do that kind of community school in so many ways was really clear and on the same page around pedagogy and everything else and he was appointed Ben Honoroff to the school. Then I had the opportunity to hire our community school director Fiorella Guevara, who was at the Annenberg, who I had met with Ben when we piloted the parent home visit. It was a national parent home visit initiative in MS 50 a year before. So all of the , as it were, the stars were aligned for us to then start out work in terms of transforming MS 50.Frances Lucerna:
We started first with the teachers themselves, the facilitators, as we would call them, teachers as they call themselves , and really did a lot of support and processing with the staff themselves. We created a room, took a room in the school, I remember, and we called it the cafesito corner. It was just a room where we had coffee, we had donuts, we had bagels and it was just open all day for staff to come in, parents to come in, students to come in and just create community.Frances Lucerna:
We were able and parents and they did. And it was just a space to really be able to be and to create community. I think the other piece that we had already piloted but that we continued to support in a real hands on way, was the parent home visits and so this was a program where incoming sixth graders to the school, we get a visit from staff of the school for the sole purpose of introducing themselves, going to their homes and just asking them, what is it that they dream? What is it that they're dreaming and hoping for their child and for themselves coming to the school? Profound in terms of a message that's given to parents that this is your school, this is your place and we are very much committed to making those dreams come true.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I appreciate, especially the fact that you're discussing about a school that existed and then your take on transforming it to truly serve students, I think that for a lot of listeners, that may be the situation they're in, rather than maybe having the opportunity to create a school from scratch may not be something they can do. So just taking some of the things that you've learned from creating your own school and applying it to a school that exists is really wonderful and thank you so much for sharing those stories. I'm curious, you've done such a wonderful job setting up what the schools are now and what they've done. I imagine that you were motivated by something that you were seeing in your community to even think about creating your own school and then transforming a second one. Can you discuss some of the breaking points or points of tension between schools in traditional school settings that your schools are trying to address?Frances Lucerna:
Yeah, I think many of the things that I just talked about in terms of, first and foremost is our concept of school, right? Schools for the most part are fortresses or institutions or buildings that exist in a community, not necessarily connected to the community, not necessarily reflective of the community, parents and I are isolated and marginalized, particularly parents, many of our parents in this community are good example who do not speak English, who are first immigrants, first time immigrants to the country, there is nothing built into the culture or the way in which schools are designed or the way in which they function that is welcoming and embracing in a sustainable way, right? That really is clearly a place where there, what we say in Spanish 'con confianza' that has that clear commitment to building relationships of trust and compassion and respect with the parents and community, if anything, it's usually we want to keep community at bay because it just complicates things, right?Frances Lucerna:
So you start there and so really that's clearly what needs to start, where you need to start is really looking at what this school is. If this is a school that is part of the community, it's where we send our children and they spend 12 years of their formative life, where parents come with trust and entrust us with their children, then what is the, almost the moral mandate that we have in terms of how and in which way we facilitate and care and develop that space, right? Now, that's an intentionality, in a conversation that I think really starts to talk about, I think the divide here, right? What the school and you walk into a school building, what do you see is also important.Frances Lucerna:
What do you see that tells you, this is a place where I see me in it. I see my children. I see my community. I see my family. I see my culture. I see my language. I think that's also very important and also essential.Frances Lucerna:
And then I think it's the curriculum itself, right? Where and how there is a clear connection that young people can feel in terms of what they are learning and what they are living and how and in which way they are clear that what's going to happen for them here and what everybody in this building, right? If we want to call it that or in this space is committed to, is really really supporting them in a relationship, a sustainable relationship to really achieve their highest potential, the dreams that they have for themselves, and really give them the skills to be able and all that they need to be able to do that, that this is a place where, as I often talk about, they can find their passion, their purpose, and their power and everything that is designed and all the supports that are built in is for that reason.Frances Lucerna:
And that goes for parents also and that parents are not just called in to have a meeting, to talk about a bake sale or a fundraiser, but they're brought in to really sit at the table and say, "Okay, what is it that you feel is happening here in the school that is working and what is not working and what are your suggestions? What can we think about and we can do together to really improve this?"Miriam Magaña Lopez:
I think something that I hold onto is just the amount of potential that you see in students where in traditional school settings, unfortunately, students based on their race or the language they speak are tracked into these academic paths that may not be the one that they should be in because of these assumptions are made by educators and the fact that your school focuses and appreciates the potential that students have in different ways, I think, is really unique and I wish I went to a school like that where each student is, their skills and the way they see the world is appreciated rather than put into a box based on these identities that we carry. You have these great facilitators, you have this awesome curriculum and I understand that in both your schools, you have a few frameworks that you have done and as time goes on, you rework them to make sure that they're meeting students needs. And one of the frameworks focuses on developing a deep sense of belonging among students.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
You mentioned, if a student feels invisible, how do we expect them to graduate? Can you talk a little bit more about what this means and why it's so important for students to feel seen and heard in educational setting?Frances Lucerna:
I think, when we started the academy, one of the most, I'm telling you one of the most moving exercises that we did was we did a word association. I went around the circle and said school, school to our facilitators and what came up and what the stories that were then related in terms of how and in which way we all felt invisible, humiliated, oppressed, ridiculed in so many different overt and subtle ways in schools and throughout our school experience was profound. And I think, the first thing a young person does when they walk into a building is put their bookcase on a runner for it to be scanned and they have to go through a metal detector and raise their hands. It is a clear message to them of who they are perceived to be, not who they are.Frances Lucerna:
And I think, this is where we are right now. And I think particularly in communities of color and communities, poor communities like ours, right? I think when a young person, when their language is not recognized, celebrated, and honored, when their history is not recognized, celebrated, or honored, their heritage, their traditions, and there is nobody who speaks to them in the language of dreams, possibilities, and potential, then it is very clear to that young person that they have no place in this world, right? There is no place. They have no place in this world. Their community has no place. Who they are, the very essence who they are, has no place in this world and that everything that they then are being, what do I want to say?Frances Lucerna:
Really what they are being processed to really look at in terms of what is success, what is leadership, what is power, has nothing to do with their lived experience. I think this is profound. This is absolutely profound and I think it's that basic and yet I think it's where we need to start in saying when a young person comes in and the first thing that they experience is someone at the front door, greeting them and saying, "Hi Maria, Hola Jose. Hey, good afternoon. Good morning Danny, how's it going? How are you feeling? Good to see you." And they can come back and say, "Good morning, Frances." That's already, they are seeing.Frances Lucerna:
When they are experiencing and hearing it in both our schools, the arts, really being able to engage in the arts in many different kinds of ways where they want to be professional artists, many of our young people do and do go on or not, there are multiple ways and entry points for them to experience and explore themselves, they're in a life and what is that, that is about them, that is unique and that is passionate, right? Their passion, something that I say is really having an affair with their souls, right? And that is something that is celebrated, that is something that is supported, then a young person really understands or starts to really see themselves in a powerful way and that they are a contributor to the world that they live in, the community that they live in, the space that they are in, that they are respected and honored in so many different and profound ways and that who they are as they express themselves through art, through performing, through writing is also celebrated.Frances Lucerna:
These are so many different ways that the messages, you are essential, you are important, you are a contributor, you are an agent of change in this world, and you have everything that you need to make that powerful change individually and collectively. To me, that is just what we are here to do. It is, as I [inaudible 00:28:36] say, the right thing to do, right?Miriam Magaña Lopez:
Thank you so much for outlining the ways that your school environments from a belonging. I'm curious to follow up on this idea of talking circles or talk circles that you do in your school. Can you briefly give us an overview of what that is and how that falls in the framing of belonging?Frances Lucerna:
Yeah, I think it goes back to our earlier conversation of what actually happened here at El Puente today, we don't call them talking circles as much as we call them sacred circle, because we clearly are very cognizant of our ancestors and our cultural tradition and so we do recognize the sacred and we call them sacred circles because they are spaces that we clearly and very intentionally define as spaces, where we are inviting those who join us in that circle to not just bring their bodies, but to bring their hearts and their souls with 'the confianza', right? With the trust that this space is going to hold that and honor that and we do that on a regular basis with our staff, with our young people. In times where there might be crisis, when there is conflicts, so this idea of conflict resolution, it's couched within sacred circles, we have very particular norms in terms of how and in which way we enter and we participate in sacred circles, but this is a place where, again, there is equality with the adults that sit in that circle as well as the young people who sit in that circle, parents who sit in that circle.Frances Lucerna:
What it does is, it just reaffirms our commitment to each other and our commitment to create safety and create a space of caring, love, and caring, and compassion for each other and our commitment to support each other through whatever it is, whether it be tragedy or trauma or conflict or celebration, right? A moment of celebration and so even sacred circles that are about celebration and rite of passage are very much part of the culture of El Puente.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
What transformations are you seeing within your students? You've done such a wonderful job outlining the intention behind creating the space and the curriculum and making sure the students feel like they belong. I'm curious to hear, how is that manifesting in the way that your students are showing up for the world?Frances Lucerna:
What we're seeing is young people and particularly I want to focus on young people who have special challenges, right? Who have special needs, we call them our VIP students. I think it's most dramatic in seeing what and how young people, who again, in other settings perhaps would be invisible or would be dismissed or would be marginalized. Our young people are able to continue to succeed and flourish and thrive in the academy as well as MS 50. I think in the academy, many of our young people graduate in four year and there was again, a larger even number who graduate in five years, right? Because we are very clear that there is also flexibility in understanding what young people need and some of that is why our schools are very small, right?Frances Lucerna:
But many of our young people have gone on to graduate. Many of our young people have gone on to universities, private universities on full scholarships. We have had young people. Now we have, I don't know which number cohort of graduates who are at Mount Holyoke, Hampshire. We've had young people go to Cornell, Smith, our state colleges, many of our young people and because we've invested in a college advisor who does one-on-ones and matches with our young people in terms of small colleges, colleges that have programs and are focused on first generation students who have strong support systems on campus for students of color, we do those kinds of matches. So many of our young people are placed and go to those colleges. After a process of, again, being supported to visit the college with opportunity to spend weekends at the college, to have parents go up and see the college because that's also something that is really important in terms of that transition, that is not only for young people but for their families.Frances Lucerna:
I think in the middle school, we have seen the young people there being able to, first and foremost, their academic, their math, and a language arts scores have gone up. The attendance, as I said, has been 95 plus but the academic scores have gone up and really affirming that what we are here to do is to really say there are endless possibilities that are open to you. And whichever one speaks to you, calls to you, we are here to support you. And now we have a real rich cohort of alumni also.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
It's incredible what young people can do with the right support, right? I think traditional settings focus on serving students in a very siloed environment where they show up to classroom, they leave and the way that you're grouping in their community, their family life, and really being intentional, even about college selection, I also am a first generation college student and I went to a small liberal arts college in Minnesota and knowing that too, that I was able to receive the support I needed there and getting that guidance that I needed to make myself feel like I belong in that space as well was super important and to know that your school already incorporates that and it's amazing that your students feel so supported. My last question to you is, to conclude our conversation, some listeners may be new to the framework and are tuning it into see how this framework can apply to their work. Some people who may be working with young people in different professional capacities, such as social work, counseling, maybe organizing, what advice would you give them to apply this framework of belonging?Frances Lucerna:
I think what I would say is the first and foremost, it begins with intentionality, with intention in terms of understanding that the work that we do, not in isolated silos, right? We do the work that we do not only in service with, but with community, with young people, if it would be young people with families and that when you choose to do this work, whether it be a social work or education or organizing and we have frameworks here at El Puente, three of which and one of them is transformative community building, goes back to our principles. You are entering community to become part of community.Frances Lucerna:
You are not there to come and fix a problem, you are there to come and be a deep, intentional listener to the people that are there, to the people that you invite to be part of an experience, to the children that you have been entrusted with, right? And the families that you are in partnership with and so it is incumbent upon all of us to be deep and intentional and compassionate listeners to the people.Frances Lucerna:
And if we do that and it sounds simplistic but I don't think it is, I think then we are guided from the right place to understand how we can be partners, allies in a process of transformation. And I think intentionality of purpose is really important and so in our case, it is always self-determination for the people in the community, for the people who live in that community for the indigenous people who are there for our young people, that intentionality of purpose is where we can always then come back to the table wherever and however in the process and say to ourselves and answer this question for the sake of that.Miriam Magaña Lopez:
That was Frances Lucerna. Thank you so much for your time. And to our listeners, please check out our other podcasts that we discussed belonging and bridging in more detail. For our resources and curriculums on belonging and bridging, please go to belonging.berkeley.edu/b4b, that is slash letter B, number four, letter B. To follow Frances' work, go to elpuente.us, that is spelled E-L-P-U-E-N-T-E dot US. Until next time.