McKeesport students aim to become ‘Voices of Change’

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com

McKeesport High School student “scholars” from the newly-created “Voices of Change” group are seeking to create a diverse legacy of greatness in their school district.
Through productive, open and sometimes difficult conversations amongst themselves, as well as with teachers, board members and administrators, the students want to be a force for positive changes within McKeesport High School.
Senior Bolivar Campusano said the group talked to district leaders about topics such as diversity, communication breakdowns between students and educators and school discipline policies and practices.
“Basically, our overarching goal is to create positive change in the school,” said Campusano.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Tia Wanzo said credit for the group’s creation goes in part to board Director Mindy Sturgess, who’s recently been working on “rebooting the Diversity Committee because it was a little stale.”
After talking with Wanzo and Sturgess, a representative from Penn State Greater Allegheny and others, high school English teacher Jah-Chant Robinson thought the committee and the district would benefit from hearing what issues or initiatives students are passionate about.
Robinson, an English teacher, worked with her brother, senior Rasinity Robinson, and other students to recruit a group of “scholars” to share their thoughts with each other, the administration, Sturgess and others.
“They wanted to improve the committee, and one way they thought of doing that was to get opinions from student voices,” Campusano said. “They gathered about 10-15 students and we all had a conversation about what we thought of the school.

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