"It is our generation that will be the ones to do something about the division of economic status in the KC area. We will create steps to stop the economic and educational division."
​~ Race Project Student

Student Experience

Each year, for the past five years,  participating high schools joined student cohort groups. Our goal was to provide encounters students would not naturally have in their daily lives, with students from different neighborhoods and backgrounds, from across our informal segregation lines. The cohorts came together for events exploring the idea of race from four different themes:

• Identity 
• Health Equity 
• Representation 
• History & its impact on Community 

The final event of the year was a culminating symposium that included all schools from all cohorts. We brought together authors, artists, and experts to offer keynote and breakout options for a full day of significant, insightful conversations. Based on student feedback, students left feeling informed and energized.

​For a deeper sense of how we approached these topics, here, as an example, is an introduction we’ve used for some of our workshops: Windows & Mirrors & here is a link to our 2019 Student Symposium.*

*With the onset of COVID-19 and the pandemic that followed, students in the 2019 - 2020 student cohorts were unable to continue their experience. In the two subsequent school years, Race Project KC workshops and annual symposium were offered virtually; 31 schools participated.​

Testimony: Our Stories, the publication created by RPKC students during the 2020-21 school year:
Writing is an act of bravery.  Writing is powerful.​ To write is to be vulnerable, to explore, to question, to connect, to examine, to share our voice. 

 A 2022 collection of student recipes that represent diverse backgrounds.
Food is an essential cultural element that binds people together, enforces a shared sense of identity, and strengthens the sense of community and belonging...