Formative Spring Break Unity Trip To Chicago

More than two dozen high school students who participate in an afterschool program dedicated to enhancing their sense of self spent most of last week's spring break in Chicago, coming back, as one of the group's leaders put it, empowered.

And, while the students were personally enthusiastic about the trip, their mentors came back resolved to try to make the program a part of the Bridgehampton and Southampton schools' regular curriculum.

The program is called the Unity School, and it is run by William Hartwell, a longtime mentor of youth throughout the South Fork. It meets Thursdays for three hours after school at Bridgehampton. About 50 students from both communities participate. In addition, there is a junior-high group numbering about 20.

Varied Itinery

For virtually all, including Richard Wingfield, the Southampton District's community liaison, it was their first visit to that city. The itinerary included visits to the DuSable Museum of African American history, Michael Jordan's restaurant, and the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose congregation, the city's second-largest, numbers 6,000.

The group stayed at a Y.M.C.A. near Cabrini Green, a complex of municipal housing, where a number of the visitors, including Mr. Hartwell, played basketball with neighborhood kids.

Perhaps most significant was a visit with Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu, an educator and lecturer whose multicultural curriculum Mr. Hartwell uses in the Unity School's classes.

Curriculum's Author

"The whole thrust of Dr. Kunjufu's curriculum, which we'd like to make available to all black, white, Native American, and Hispanic students here, is to make everyone feel valued," said Mr. Wingfield. "And you can't do this without a sense of history, of where you come from. Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King shouldn't have died in vain, nor should all of the other peaceful warriors."

At the DuSable Museum, which featured exhibits on pre-Civil War and Civil War days, as well as Civil Rights movement photographs, and artifacts from Africa, the students were put in touch with history in a way they hadn't been before, said Mr. Wingfield.

"I think the kids had mixed emotions coming home. There was a lot of sadness as well as enthusiasm. And while maybe they couldn't quite articulate it, they'd just been empowered. They had learned that it's about being bold, not about playing small, not shrinking from the world," Mr. Wingfield said.

Doing What's Right

"Now, we have to keep saying to them, 'It's up to you now.' That that journey we made was about a kind of evolving, about being able to take on a tremendous responsibility . . . that you have to take a stand in doing what's right," he added.

For Shaquanna Jenkins, Edith Crews, and Taryn McGrath, the church service was particularly notable. "Dr. Kunjufu is a member there," said Mr. Hartwell. "It was unbelievable. We were welcomed by the minister. They had a great choir, more than 200, wearing African kente cloth. The sun was shining through the glass roof on them. . . ."

For Paul Jeffers, one of several members of the Bridgehampton state-champion boys basketball team on the trip, the sighting of the Chicago Bulls' Ron Harper, "right around the corner from Michael Jordan's restaurant," was noteworthy, as was the visit to the DuSable Museum and to Dr. Kunjufu's African American Images publishing company where Dr. Kunjufu, who has lectured at Southampton and East Hampton High Schools in the past, talked to them about self-esteem and success.

Still An Appendage

While thankful that the Southampton and Bridgehampton School Districts had shared the cost of transportation, via the Hampton Jitney, to and from Chicago, and that Southampton buses students to Unity School classes in Bridgehampton, Mr. Wingfield said he and Mr. Hartwell hoped that soon the Unity School would "no longer be an appendage of the schools, but a part of their curriculum."

"I have a lot of admiration for William for holding on to his vision. The school systems still don't know how to make it part of their curriculum. It shouldn't be like that. There should be multicultural programs in Bridgehampton, Southampton, East Hampton, Bellport. . . . It's extremely hard to keep yourself in sight when you don't see yourself, when you have no positive role models, no vision that is valued."

Seeing Growth

The two men and some of the students who went on the trip will meet with the Bridgehampton and Southampton School Boards on May 12 and May 13 to press the point.

"I could see these kids grow in those few days," Mr. Wingfield said on his return. "Sometimes you have to go outside of your community to see yourself as who you are rather than who you are led to think you are. . . . I think taking kids into the world in the way we have [the Unity School visited Washington two years ago and Atlanta last year] is the best educational experience you can give them."