On Thursday, June 25, 2020, Stuyvesant High School and the Stuyvesant Alumni Association co-hosted a virtual community discussion to talk about racism and inequality in many of America’s institutions. This event provided an opportunity for Stuyvesant alumni and current Stuyvesant students to share their experiences, opinions and questions on how systemic racism and bias manifest, recent events and the lessons they teach us, as well as how positive change can start within our own community.

The panelists were:

• Brenda Clark, PhD ’76
• Jamil Ellis ’95
• Emeka Patrick ’98
• Candice Morgan ’00
• Gordon Ebanks ’20 
• Bryan Monge Serrano ’20 
• Sarai Pridgen ’21
• Melissa Lopez ’21

Jeaurel Wilson, Stuyvesant’s Associate Director of College Counseling, was the moderator. You can read more about their backgrounds here.

Many thanks to Ms. Dina Ingram, Stuyvesant’s Director of Family Engagement, and Mr. Angel Colon for coordinating with the Alumni Association staff and the Membership, Reunions & Events Committee to put together this event.

Principal Eric Contreras and SHSAA President Soo Kim ’93 gave opening remarks, with Principal Contreras highlighting the concrete steps that Stuyvesant has taken to address racism and future plans. After the panelists’ introductions, the discussion began with the current students describing how race and ethnicity have affected their experience at Stuyvesant. The alumni chimed in with how their experiences at Stuyvesant compared to the current students’. The panel then delved into questions submitted by Stuyvesant alumni, students, faculty, and friends of the school. Individual experiences were discussed as well as possible solutions and action steps that can be taken.

This discussion gave our community a lot to think about and process. We hope this was a learning opportunity, and that we, as a community, can take action and make an impactful change both here at Stuyvesant and out in the world. We hope for future events to open the conversation even more. This is just a starting point of an ongoing movement.

If you would like to listen to the entire discussion, please click on the “Video Archive” button below. 

You MUST sign into MyStuy to access the video archive. 

Copying or distribution, by any method, in whole or part, of this video for any purpose without the written permission of the Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association, Inc. is prohibited. This panel was conducted under the Chatham House Rule. You are free to use information from the discussion, but you are not allowed to reveal who made any comment.

If anyone is interested in getting involved in planning these types of events, please reach out to the Alumni Association at [email protected]. You can reach out to Stuy BSL/ASPIRA at [email protected].

Donate to the Stuy Fund to help us grow one of our most important programs, StuyPrep. StuyPrep is a free SHSAT test-prep and mentoring program sponsored by the Alumni Association to help students from underserved and underprivileged neighborhoods throughout NYC gain admission to the specialized high schools.

You can read more about StuyPrep and the impact it has had in our news archive.

If you have any questions, reach out to [email protected]. The Stuyvesant High School Alumni Association office is currently unable to take phone calls to our main line. Please email us to schedule a phone call.