Leadership Academy
Are you or is someone you know a future leader who wishes to grow and learn this summer? The summer Leadership Academy offers high school juniors and seniors, as well as college freshmen, an in-depth study of the civil rights movement, both locally and nationally. Students earn high school or college credit for an English class while exploring civil rights issues, traveling to local civil rights sites, developing their own research projects, and improving their reading and writing skills.

For high school students, the Leadership Academy is an amazing introduction to university classroom learning and life. For college students, this is a thought-provoking, soul-searching, eye-opening journey through the recent past.

The summer academy is an eight-week session open to 40 area students. Participants spend four days each week on campus for approximately 3½ hours each day. The day is divided between history and English curricula.

Mentoring
Members of the IU South Bend student body are supported and mentored. Underrepresented students meet with fellow students who work to keep them connected to their dreams. Upperclassmen offer the information students need regarding registration, note-taking, study skills, and participation in U100 Threshold Seminar courses. Students develop vital social contacts, which improve academic skills and standing.

As upperclassmen, students can become mentors and help others make those important connections, and of even greater worth, help others find their voices.

Step One Leadership Program
Step One is a teen leadership program which helps participants develop life skills that prepare them for college, the workplace, and the community. The group members attend biweekly meetings that focus on education and skill building. Predominately comprised of minority students of both high school and college age, it promotes higher education, diversity, and nonviolence through programs and community events. It is open to all area youth and there is no membership fee.

Diversity Reading Program
IU South Bend students and Civil Rights Heritage Center members volunteer to visit and read to school children, daycare centers, and community organizations. The books selected reflect the many cultures in our area and provide additional support for lesson plans. Students read to about 200 young children each semester.

Freedom Summer
Freedom Summer is an academic course led by Dr. Monica M. Tetzlaff, chair and associate professor of history. Students leave the classroom to tour the South and talk with ordinary individuals who were integral to the civil rights movement. The students revisit the sites of historic marches, churches, and other sites. Veterans of the movement share their feelings and experiences with students. It is a living history experience that opens doors and minds.

21st Century Scholars Citizenship and Education Program
The Civil Rights Heritage Center, in partnership with the 21st Century Scholars program, has recently teamed up to launch "Continuing the Legacy: The Power of Education." The program stresses the importance of education in the civil rights movement and personal educational goals.

Young scholars read a book written by one of the students who desegregated Little Rock Central High School in 1957. They also research the educational goals of a prominent American. Through this required work, scholars learn the skills of journaling and composition, mathematics, and computer-guided research.

Students who are enrolled in this citizenship program have the opportunity to enroll, tuition-free, in the following summer’s Leadership Academy.

For more information, please contact us.