Summit Prep offers a look into the human experience with Expeditions

By Jon Garvin

Staff Writer

Celebration of Learning is an annual showcase put together by the Expeditions team where students and parents come together to learn about the different courses. Students in the Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, Girl Rising and Human Sexuality classes explored different aspects of culture and the human experience. Here are some things they displayed at the Celebration of Learning:

Anthropology

Anthropology is a class taught by Noelle Easterday. “Anthropology is the study of human beings in the past and the present, hopefully looking towards the future,” she explained. For the annual Celebration of Learning, students created an Anthropology museum. “They’re curating their own museum of artifacts that they have chosen from their own life that they feel represent their culture,” Teacher Easterday said.

Here’s a look at some of the student exhibits:

Summit Prep freshman Kayla Mora explained the objects she chose: “It represents a lot of my culture. We like dogs, we love to have fun with board games and we use objects to represent our religion.”

Summit Prep freshman Gerardo Rodriguez also explained his choice in the objects he brought: “Instead of bringing something really big, they were simple.”

Here is a look at what other Anthropology students did:

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Ethnic Studies

Ethnic Studies is a class taught by upperclassmen at Summit Preparatory Charter High School. The purpose of the class is for students to learn more about themselves and about other people. This class covers history that isn’t taught in regular classes. Students talk about the media and current issues, discussing how the media portrays different people.

The students’ last project consisted of a social experiment related to an issue that they saw in the world. Based on the results of that experiment, they proposed a way to fix that issue. For example, one student proposed that talking to people more about gay rights would improve how people in the LGBTQ community are treated.

For their Celebration of Learning project, students picked an issue to research and explained why they chose that issue. Here’s a look at what they presented:

Summit Prep freshman Daniel Garcia said, “We’re working on LGBT rights because they aren’t receiving enough rights because of their sexual orientation.”

Summit Prep sophomores Vanessa Contreras and Alexa Vargas chose to research mass incarceration. Contreras said, “We picked the topic of mass incarceration because one in three black males get incarcerated.”

Here is a look at what other Ethnic Studies students researched:

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Girl Rising

Girl Rising is an Expeditions class in which female students learned about “feminist issues and the female body,” according to Cynthia Dubridge, a Summit Prep freshman. The students in the class presented videos on feminist issues, from female genital mutilation to sex trafficking. Anyone who identifies as female and is concerned about issues relating to their gender can join the class to learn more.

Summit Prep junior Denisse Fierro presented a short film titled “My Body No Shame.”

Human Sexuality

Human Sexuality is an Expeditions class taught by Lia Pinelli. In this class, students learn about sexuality, anatomy, sexual orientation, sexual identity, birth control and relationships. For their last project, students picked a topic they’ve learned about in class and created an educational video to teach other people about the topic. For the Celebration of Learning showcase, students created a presentation to talk to parents about sex and why they should talk to their kids about sex.