I GOT THE BLUES!

What an exciting day for Teen U students! Today, we went to the House of Blues and learned about African Americans contribution to music from the past to the present. It was very fascinating to hear the songs the slaves sang when they were being transported through the Middle Passage to America to the 1970's when Muddy Waters sang "I can't be satisfied. " The students enjoyed the experience and cannot wait until next Friday when they go back to the House of Blues to learn about folk artists.

On Wednesday, Teen U students had another college 101 workshop entitled "How to choose a major." Each student had to find a major based on their interests. For example, Sharde loves to help people so she decided to major in sociology. After they found their major, they had to look for universities with their major and pick a profession. Finally, they created a poster or PowerPoint to present their major and career choice to their peers. I enjoyed listening to their presentations and getting to know more about the students.

~~~Jamacah~~~

Pizza & Equality for All!!!

To kick off Civil Rights, on Friday, at lunch, we demonstrated discrimination in a certain way. As excited as the teens were about receiving pizza, it did not match the feelings they showed when we gave the pepperoni pizza to the teens wearing white, and gave cheese to everyone else. We also gave the people wearing white the option to choose between soda and lemonade, which was not an option for the rest. You could see thorough the teens attitudes that it was unjust. The people wearing white were satisfied, but at the same time wondering what's going on. The people not wearing white were feeling disappointed, amongst other feelings. This is a reminder of how people of 'different' attributes are treated differently, such as African-Americans, women, and even young teenagers. With this start off, we hope to establish the importance of respect and equality at Teen University and in their lives.

- Dranoel

Memphis Civil Rights and College Trip

Our Civil Rights/College trip started at 10:00 p.m. on Friday evening. Eight charter buses full of 400+ teenagers and chaperones left City Hall to head to Memphis, TN for a whirlwind trip thanks to Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and staff.

The itinerary:

• LeMoyne-Owen College--tour and breakfast
• Stax museum
• National Civil Rights Museum
• Beale Street
• Mud Island for lunch
• Drive by the Clinton Library and Central High School
• Philander Smith College--tour and dinner

It was a crazy schedule. I admit, I wasn't real hopeful of accomplishing all of it. But, as you see in Shenandoah's video above, we were able to make it to every place on the trip...with a slight little adjustment of driving by Beale Street instead of stopping.

I'll write more later once I edit the other videos.