SCHOOL OVERVIEW
The Own Your History® Leadership course (OYHL) provides in-depth modules covering some of the most challenging realities of our past, our hard history. Drawing on primary source documents, it is fact-based. OYHL is anti-racist and all-inclusive. It empowers students to make a constructive difference in their communities and the country.
RECONCILING A DIVIDED COUNTRY
We have inherited a country with deep divisions rooted in American history. "Owning your history" is transforming, because facing our historical skeletons lets us move beyond them. More conscious about living in a diverse society, students become empowered to seek the reconciliation our country needs.
Left: "Unite the Right" march in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017
COMPELLING SUBJECTS
Denial of historical facts and events fuels our country's divisions. We frequently ignore aspects of our past that are contrary to our national ideals. OYHL confronts denial and leads to ownership of both American greatness and a hard history of inequality, xenophobia, poverty, discrimination, and injustice based on color ["race"], gender, ethnicity, religion, and LGBTQ+ status.
Right: Angry crowd responds to Little Rock, Arkansas, desegregation, 1957
OUR HARD HISTORY
OYHL develops leaders and citizens with greater awareness. They will learn to own our hard history and become motivated to work for a future that fulfills the "Promise of America" for all.
Left: Students affected by Mendez v. Westminster (1946), the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down segregation of Mexicans in California schools
MODULAR & ADAPTABLE
OYHL is designed to be adaptable. These modules can be used, for example, as a semester elective course, as focused enrichment materials in a U.S. history survey, or as units in an ethnic studies course.
Right: Women demonstrating for the vote during the 1910s
A BETTER FUTURE
Combining ownership of America's past with personal development, OYHL nurtures more aware and productive citizens who are prepared to work at achieving the American promise of justice, inclusion, and equal opportunity. Students become more understanding of our diverse society and of the need to seek reconciliation and justice, as well as of their potential to create a better future.
Left: Virginia Civil Rights Memorial in Richmond, Virginia, commemorating protests which helped bring about school desegregation