Co-president of the Clarke Central High School Students of Color Achieving and Pursuing Excellence club (SCAPE) Makenna Mincey, a junior writes goals and norms for the club members while the CCHS SCAPE club members interact during their second meeting of the semester in math department teacher Lashanda Young’s classroom on Nov. 4. Mincey became the co-president of SCAPE for the 2021-22 school year, continuing the club’s focus on making a change in the high rigor classes at CCHS. “A lot of those students feel very overlooked in those classes, not only by their peers but by their teachers,” Mincey said. “And even beyond that, just to have a platform for those voices to be heard so when something is of concern to students of color, they have a backing.” Photo by Lucas Donnelly
Students of Color Achieving and Pursuing Excellence (SCAPE) was founded at CCHS in 2019 with a mission to academically and socially support students of color in high-level classes.
Student-led and striving for success, the Students of Color Achieving and Pursuing Excellence (SCAPE) club is a place where students of color can collaborate with and support one another socially and academically.
The club was founded during the 2019-20 school year by 2021 CCHS alumnus Kurali Grantham, a junior at the time, and 2020 CCHS alumnus Rosie Sykes, a senior at the time. The club was created with the help of the club’s sponsor at the time, former CCHS school counselor Dr. Ashlee Holsey, and with help from math department teacher Nicole George, who is a current co-sponsor along with Lashonda Young.
“My reasoning behind founding SCAPE was to create a community of competition and support for students of color,” Grantham said. “Especially (for) Black students, like myself, who have the potential to take and succeed in high rigor (Advanced Placement) and advanced courses at Clarke Central High School, but didn’t feel the systemic support to take that risk, to step outside of their comfort zone and enroll in those classes.”
Upon Grantham’s graduation, he and Sykes reached out to current co-presidents of SCAPE, Makenna Mincey and Mckenna Ezekiel, CCHS juniors, about leading the club.
“I’m proud of (Mincey and Ezekiel) for tapping into their own excellence and being motivated with all the other stuff that they do because they’re very involved students. (They are) very passionate and very intelligent,” Grantham said.
SCAPE club meets on the first and fourth Thursday of every month in Young’s classroom for student-led discussions on various topics. According to George, SCAPE aims to give students of color access and support in furthering their academic achievements in advanced classes.
“(SCAPE) really did help me to establish a community and to see that there were more people like me, and people who shared similar experiences. And that was important.”
— Makenna Mincey,
SCAPE co-president and junior Makenna Mincey
“The goal is educating our students of all the opportunities that they can have,” George said. “I’m a freshman teacher, so a lot of freshmen come in not realizing all the things that they could do and this club has done a really great job of exposing them to that information.”
Mincey continues to prioritize the same supportive environment and goals that Grantham and Sykes created during the club’s founding.
“For a long time, even before I got into high school, I felt really ostracized from my own community because of the classes I took, the teachers I had and the students I was around the majority of the time,” Mincey said. “(SCAPE) really did help me to establish a community and to see that there were more people like me, and people who shared similar experiences. And that was important.”
A member of the Clarke Central High School Students of Color Achieving and Pursuing Excellence (SCAPE) club raises their hand at a SCAPE meeting on Thursday, Nov. 4. Members of the club are encouraged to voice their concerns and opinions during meetings, trying to find solutions to rising issues on campus that the club tackles. “It’s gotten a lot more of a student voice to it. And I feel like the students are a lot more comfortable speaking plainly and just speaking abruptly about the things that they are facing as students of color especially in the higher rigorous classes,” George said. Photo by Lucas Donnelly
According to George, it is common for students of color at CCHS to experience difficulty when finding support for furthering their academic achievements. In order to combat this, SCAPE acts as a support system for students to feel accepted in their more rigorous classes.
“I teach honors and on-level and I noticed that many students in our on-level class could really be an honors, but because of circumstances or teachers showing them that they weren’t good before, they are still (in) on level,” George said. “I wanted to be able to show (the students) that ‘No, you have a place in honors (and AP) classes, and it’s not just to be the token colored person.’ Classes change when there’s more (students of color) in there (and) I just wanted to be there for anybody who is pursuing that.”
Mincey’s plans for the future of SCAPE are already in sight.
“We are always looking for new members and we want to reach as many students as possible. I really want to see (SCAPE) grow to a level where it is being advertised by teachers (and) administration,” Mincey said. “Every (AP) teacher, accelerated teacher should be advertising (SCAPE) as something for their students. I want us to build in a way (so) that it’s not hard to attract new members, because they have seen the effects (of SCAPE) and they resonate with it.”
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