Written by: Francisco Peralta

On Thursday, October 25th, the University of Chicago’s campus hosted an event in their Logan Center for the Arts. The event was aimed to raise awareness for better ways to have a classroom environment that offers equity and equal opportunity amongst their students, to ensure they achieve in the classroom setting and are prepared for life beyond it. This conversation was led by the America to Me group, whose mission is to spread awareness on the importance of equity in the school environment by traveling to various cities across the United States and presenting different episodes from the Starz Entertainment hit series, America to Me. This documentary series follows a group of high school students from different grade levels and their journey throughout the 2015-2016 academic year at Oak Park River Forest High School.

Within the episode, some themes that were present to the audience included: the importance of positive role models for students who don’t have one, the importance in awareness of academic differences students are faced with due to their background, and the importance of fostering an environment of both equality and equity, ensuring the success of all students within the classroom. Audiences were presented with characters who, by presenting their struggles through interviews and visuals, could teach audiences who were not aware of the happenings within the classroom environment.

After the screening, there were guest speakers that shared about their experience in education and what they have noticed as either a student, classroom teacher, school official, or as a reporter within the halls of OPRF high school. Towards the end of the presentations, the America to Me organization announced that Starz was offering a 10-week free trial to individuals who were interested in presenting this program to others, so that the conversation of the importance of both equity and equality could continue beyond the walls of University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts walls.