2024-2025 EOY Report - Flipbook - Page 4
Reflections
This 昀椀scal year began with our 昀椀ve-year anniversary as an organization. That’s 昀椀ve years of growing and advocating for our
students of color in North Carolina. The celebration of our anniversary was followed shortly by the presidential election, which had
the potential to change how we, and organizations like ours, continue to 昀椀ght for change. We won’t lie: the aftermath of the election
led to attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion e昀昀orts in the education 昀椀eld, a昀昀ecting every corner of our work. These continued
assaults had a direct impact on our funding streams by threatening the philanthropic community and causing us to reorganize some
of our programming.
However, our commitment to exploring the intersections of racial justice and educational equity is stronger than ever. Our resolve
has grown even more in the face of a drastically changed political climate. We are rising to the moment by continuing to o昀昀er
dynamic programming, empirically sound research products, and keen policy analysis. And, as always, we continue to lock arms
with our partner organizations throughout the state. We are trying to build the infrastructure that actualizes a vision in which
students of color, in all their complex identities, truly thrive. This is our CREED, and until it becomes reality, we cannot rest.
This commitment has also been recognized in a few ways. First, our previous year’s Impact Report was picked up by WFAE, which
highlighted our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion work amid ongoing attacks. We were later honored to receive WFAE’s
EQUALibrium Award for outstanding contributions to advancing equity within the community. Also this year, we were featured in 11
news articles by organizations across the state and nationwide. These articles not only told the stories of our current programming
but also highlighted our previous research, polling, and expertise, cementing our status as experts in the 昀椀eld of racial equity in
education.
In the past year, we have expanded our team by hiring a part-time Program Coordinator who has helped us grow the work of one
of our largest programs, #TeachingInColor, while developing other programming. We also had the pleasure of welcoming our largest
intern class to date, with 12 interns and one Southern Education Leadership Initiative Fellow, after receiving over 100 applications.
We had a busy year of partnership and programming, including a DEI teach-in, another HBCU Advocacy Day, and our fourth-annual
#TeachingInColor Summit. One of our research a昀케liates, Kris Nordstrom, released his report on education funding equity in North
Carolina. Some of our interns also published articles on numerous topics, including bridging opportunity gaps for Latine students,
private school vouchers, and more.
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