Ritenour hosts Gateway 2 Change Race Summit
Students from 38 schools came to Ritenour to discuss societal issues
October 18, 2016
Gateway 2 Change is a nonprofit organization created following the death of Mike Brown and the social unrest that followed. Today at Ritenour High School, 38 schools from all around the St. Louis area met to discuss things such as racism, sexism, xenophobia and other societal issues.
The facilitators of this event, motivational speaker Joe Beckman and Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, led the summit using team building exercises and personal stories to teach more about race-related tensions.
“Gateway 2 Change is an opportunity where people can come together, learn and leave inspired with tools and strategies. A gate is like a door, so it opens a path, or an avenue. We’re opening a way to change what we all want to see in America and in our communities in Missouri schools focusing on race and talking about and embracing difference,” Dr. Strayhorn said
Gateway 2 Change was created two and a half years ago by Dr. Jennifer Tiller and many others in order to teach more about race related issues, but soon spread to many other topics as more problems arose.
“Following the death of Michael Brown in 2014 and the civil unrest that happened in our local community immediately following, my staff felt frustrated and wanted to do something to make a positive impact on our community,” Dr. Tiller said
Some of the Ritenour students who attended have been involved in this program since its inception, and have seen some changes over time in the summits.
“This year it was a step up because they incorporated motivation,” junior Reese Sherman said. “This time it motivated you to go and actually create change, rather than just talk about it.”
Sherman also noted that there is still more that can be done after these summits come to a close.
“If we are going to get bigger, we need to spread out to the rest of the school. The program itself does a lot of talking, but we don’t actually do anything,” Sherman said. “Other kids in schools don’t get the opportunity to go there and they need that experience.”
Garrick Lloyd • Aug 29, 2020 at 9:31 pm
Hey,
My name is Garrick Lloyd and I attended the Gateway2Change program for the 2016-2017 summit. Joe Beckman and Dr. Terrell Were some of the best speakers I have ever heard in my LIFE. If you guys could get
E a copy of the full Live, that would be much appreciated ??
Thanks,
Garrick
Royalty Knight, Opinion Editor • Sep 3, 2020 at 1:32 pm
I don’t believe we filmed the whole presentation during that year. This is our YouTube material from that time period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of4eyxN0vc4&list=PL1MJVO4a07P1AEOtNgkRR0J6FbEy6bCAe