Students from McLain, Booker T., Central, and Webster were selected to take part in this year’s Tulsa Term cohort. These seven students will collaborate to learn about the city, work to solve real-world problems, and present their findings to leaders at City Hall.

“They come together to study their city and the city becomes the classroom and the text for everything they do,” explained Tulsa Term cofounder Jane Beckwith. “They are looking at issues and thinking about ways to design solutions or at least bring to light from a youth perspective what they see and understand about their city and what they would like to see in the future of their city.”

Throughout the semester, the students will work on three units. They just completed their first unit on the origins of Tulsa where they learned about the history of the city through the experiences of Native Americans, African Americans, and white settlers. In their ten-minute documentaries, the students answered the question how does Tulsa’s history shape its present and its identity.

After their videos played, each group answered questions from the panel, which included Phil Armstrong, Project Manager for the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission; Alisia Myers, Rehab Finance Officer for the City of Tulsa; Darita Huckabee, OPSI Project Manager for the City of Tulsa; and Kendra Reynolds, Scholar-in-Residence at TU and TCC.

Their next two units will focus on community health and gathering places. Then, students will do a capstone project where they identify an issue they want to address and present a solution that that problem.

Tulsa Term gives students an incredible opportunity to become proactive learners, get involved in their community, and develop leadership skills. The students are also earning academic credit in history, English, science, and statistics.

One of the students was recently featured on the I Am McLain Facebook page talking about his experience in the program.

In one of the posts he said, “Tulsa Term is very exciting and a huge step in helping me prepare for college and life. It’s a lot of work. You have to put your mind to it, have a good mindset, and stay positive. It’s pretty cool because it feels like a real-world job, and the work we are doing matters. I’m learning a lot.”

Tulsa Term is currently accepting applications for the 2021 cohort. The deadline to apply is February 21, 2020. For more information on Tulsa Term, click here. Follow the Tulsa Term on Facebook to stay up to date on what students are working on.