Background
William C. Overfelt High School is in the heart of the East Side of San Jose, California. In the East Side of San Jose, the population demographic data indicated about 55% Hispanic/Latinx, 33% Asian, 5% White, and 3% Black or African American. This contrasts with the entire City of San Jose, which is a population of approximately 1 million people, which is about 28% White, 32% Hispanic/Latinx, 34% Asian, and 3% Black or African American. Our school serves approximately 1400 students which are composed of approximately 80% Hispanic/Latinx, 10% Asian, 8% Black or African American. Over 80% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
A challenge at Overfelt is to encourage more students to enroll and be successful in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Historically, students from lower socioeconomic and underrepresented minority backgrounds have difficulties in achieving a passing score on the AP exams. Overfelt established a team of teachers, counselors, and administrators working to increase access, create supports, and motivate students to take on rigorous coursework. I am involved with increasing the number of opportunities Overfelt students have in experiencing science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) within multiple content areas beyond the classroom. As part of our initiative, I was able to work with one of our counselors to bring students to the 2019-2020 San Jose Speaker Series where they heard informal talks from Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Bill Nye, Captain Scott Kelly, and Paul Nicklen. A common trend among all of the talks was the need for the generation of scientists, leaders, and thinkers to create and implement solutions to address the impacts humans have had on Earth’s environment and climate and to create sustainable ways to allow our planet to thrive.
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