On January 24th, 2024, CRLS had its second-ever Youth Equity Summit, otherwise known as “YES Day.” While the first half of the day began with normal classes, the second half allowed students to either attend a 90-minute workshop independently or two 45-minute Anchor Activities with their Falcon Block. In stark contrast to last year’s Summit, which was more rushed in its inception, this year a dedicated crew of students have been working with lead organizer Sam Musher since September to formalize a solid plan.
“It was a really great experience to work with other students who are passionate about trying to do something within the school community to work on addressing equity issues,” said Kristen Chun ’25, who was part of the planning committee, to the Register Forum. “We met once a week and then sometimes we’d stop in a couple more times to help out.”
The Summit this year was met with a lot of interest from different community organizers and students, with nearly 30 eventual workshop options. These ranged from a workshop about aging, to one about being Black in school, to one about ableism. Less than a third of the nearly 70 students surveyed by the Register Forum attended a workshop, but of these, the overwhelming majority enjoyed them, with 94% stating that they learned from their workshop and found it worthwhile.
“I had a lot of fun,” said Mieka Schaffer ’25, who attended the mending and sustainable fashion workshop. “I think the problem with YES day is the attitude surrounding it—people at this school never like these kinds of events.”
Indeed, one of the organizers’ largest issues was with participation, with a significant portion of students skipping the day altogether. More than 80% of students surveyed know at least one student who ditched the event, and 78% know multiple. Meanwhile, of those who remained in the building, many either didn’t sign up for a workshop or didn’t show up, opting to remain with their Falcon Balance Blocks.
“I just wish that there were more people who actually came,” Ashlynne McBride ’24, another member of the planning team, told the Register Forum. “The Black Student Union spent a lot of time planning their workshop and not a single person showed up.” In McBride’s opinion, more work could’ve been put into the Anchor Activities as well. Nearly 80% of survey respondents stated that they felt bored during YES Day, and McBride believes that this is in large part due to these activities. “Those weren’t given the engagement that they should have been, or the attention that they should have gotten,” they said.
Ninth graders were also split off into a separate activity, and ended up doing story exchanges within their Falcon Blocks to better get to know each other, an event which ended up being really meaningful for some, but incredibly dull for others.
“We finished the story sharing in 25 minutes and then we were just sitting there for three hours,” Eleanor Younger ’27 told the Register Forum. “I know people whose teachers were literally guarding the door because they knew that people would try to leave.”
At the end of the day, Musher said, “You get out of it what you put into it,” adding that, “my quote of the whole day was that one student said it was really great to see our school acting like a school and being a community and cheering for each other. And that was my experience being in there as well.”
