Derric Johnson, founding director of the Crossroads School Equity & Justice Institute, speaks with student activists during Upper School Club Day. Photo by Jeff Goodman
The institute, fully endowed by donors, is designed to help find meaningful solutions to the global challenges today’s students will inherit, including racism, sexism, poverty, war, environmental degradation, educational inequities, religious persecution, and genocide.
The institute will form partnerships with nonprofit organizations; support student and schoolwide community activism; revolutionize the concepts of individual and institutional community service; and incubate new initiatives to help solve community challenges. In addition, Derric Johnson, the institute’s director, will work with faculty to create a comprehensive K–12 equity and justice curriculum.
“My foundational belief is that academia, the arts, and collective action movements strengthen the capacity of communities for self-governance and have long been base-building elements to facilitate lasting systemic and social change,” Johnson says. “I could not be more thrilled about the prospect of establishing an institute focused on service learning for students with the intent of facilitating good in the world.”
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