When education issues are in the news, many times the focus is on achievement gaps between different groups of students. However, focusing just on metrics that claim to measure student success ignores the reality of the situation: student outcomes can vary tremendously based on the opportunities afforded to them within their schools. While many within our country view education as a necessity that should be accessible to all, phenomena such as school closures, the school-to-prison pipeline, and disparities in course offerings result in unequal opportunities.

Through this ASB, we hope to explore the intersection of poverty and K-12 education in the United States and understand its effects on student outcomes. We are interested in better understanding why these differences come to be and what we can do in order to advocate for all students, no matter their background. As Rice students, we possess an immense amount of privilege in that we have access to an elite postsecondary education and thus we have a responsibility to be advocates within our new community. We aim to work with community partners that are interested in addressing these issues by providing resources within schools, researching the disparities within the system, and advocating for students. Education has long been centered on politics and privilege, and until we put the focus back on the students instead of an abstract idea of standardized achievement, our education system will continue to fall short.

While the Supreme Court’s verdict in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education ended legal segregation in the United States, the practice continues over 60 years later. As of 2016, over half of America’s students attended “segregated” or “racially concentrated” schools, or schools where over 75% of students were either white or people of color. Students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are hit hardest by school segregation, with schools composed of predominantly students of color receiving $23 billion less than schools that are predominantly white, according to a report released by EdBuild. Segregation persists for several reasons: insufficient integration plans, the migration of white families to the suburbs, differences in generational wealth, the effects of the school-to-prison pipeline, and perhaps most prominently, the differing resources accessible to those of different socioeconomic statuses.

On our ASB Program, we will be exploring all of these phenomena, learning about the roots of educational inequality and finding ways to translate this knowledge into direct action that combats segregation in education. Through meetings with students and teachers directly affected by this issue, as well as with leaders of nonprofit organizations, and others who are also fighting for more equitable educational policies, we hope to educate the Rice community about educational inequity. We also aim to bring back what we learn to Rice’s campus and encourage dialogue about how segregation affects our own community. Together, we want to work to foster a more equitable environment for students and uplift the voices of those who still grapple with the effects of segregation.

In 2018, an estimated 19 million people worldwide endured forced migration and displacement. This crisis has created increasing numbers of refugees and asylum seekers searching for safe spaces, but the support they receive falls short of what is needed–especially in terms of mental health.

This program will investigate the factors impacting the mental health of refugees and asylum seekers before, during, and after migration. Before displacement, refugees and asylees experience various forms of trauma and violence. During migration, they often undergo extensive stays in detention centers, devoid of basic resources and family connections. After resettling, the fate of refugees and asylees is intertwined with the intersecting effects of poverty, literacy, education, employment, housing, healthcare access, and more. Ongoing stress inflicted by resettlement impacts their mental health and quality of life greatly. With the recent expansion of detention centers lacking adequate mental and physical health support, increasing policies of deterrence, and the COVID-19 pandemic, the issues facing refugees and asylees are more salient than ever.

Throughout our time together, we will examine these issues through multiple lenses by working with refugees and asylees, educators, community organizers, healthcare workers, and policymakers to gain a deeper understanding of the barriers and avenues to change. Ultimately, our goal is to understand and advocate for mechanisms that can better support refugees and asylees and improve their quality of life. We hope that through this process, we will further develop our empathy and understanding, and become better advocates for this resilient community of people.

The number of incarcerated women in the United States has increased by more than 750% over the past 30 years, highlighting the increased involvement of women within the criminal justice system. Drug use and possession play a significant role in this growth – roughly 25% of incarcerated women have a drug-related offense – and are intricately tied to additional factors that contribute to female mass incarceration. For example, racial biases and socioeconomic disadvantages disproportionately affect women of color, who are more likely to be convicted for low-level drug possession and sale. Incarcerated women suffer high rates of mental illness, traumatic experiences, and substance use disorders. Collectively, these factors increase the likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system. But this system is poorly designed to meet the needs of these women and often exacerbates the difficulties they face. Rather than strict law enforcement interventions, adopting a compassionate, community-based system is integral to breaking the cycle of incarceration.

On our ASB, we aim to explore the challenges incarcerated women face, ranging from gender-specific barriers that bar women from receiving treatment to the long-lasting social consequences of having a drug statement on individuals and communities. Through engagement with non-profit organizations, government agencies, field experts, and other community partners, we plan to learn more about how we can advocate for the well-being of these women. We will challenge our ASB participants to reexamine the criminal justice system and contemplate potential community-based, public health alternatives to incarceration that better address the needs of incarcerated women.

The Model Minority Myth (MMM) generally defines Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) as a monolithically hardworking racial group who fulfills the ideals of the American Dream. The myth allows for a harmful account of “high achievement” to conceal the true systemic struggles that AAPIs and other racially minoritized populations face. The MMM was created as a “racial wedge” to perpetuate a social hierarchy and does not recognize the true diversity of experience of AAPIs across different ethnic groups, who face large disparities and receive limited governmental and mental health resources under the assumption of self-sufficiency in their communities.

Despite evidence that the MMM is harmful and can discourage individuals from seeking out mental health resources, it continues to impact communities. Therefore, we seek to analyze how the MMM is perpetuated and impinges on many aspects of livelihood, such as socioeconomic status, education, work, relationships, health, and mental health.

Through this ASB, participants will hear from the experiences of AAPIs, AAPI advocacy groups, educators, policy-makers, and health professionals. We will challenge you (and ourselves!) to examine the MMM from unique angles and gain a further understanding of the factors that shape these trends. We will invest in stories of all who are affected by the MMM and gain an understanding towards its full history, causes and effects. We will apply the lessons we learn to advocate for our own communities and confront the mental health stigmas that may exist within them on a personal, community and policy level.

In 2015, the UN added climate action to the Sustainable Development Goals for the first time. With the mission to “take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts”, the UN has outlined concerns ranging from rising sea-levels affecting small island nation-states and coastal cities to an increase in severe natural disasters. In the U.S, some communities, particularly lower-income people of color, have disproportionately felt the effects of the climate crisis through adverse health outcomes and forced migration. These global and local events demonstrate the current impact of climate change and raises concerns about the future.

Our ASB Program aims to investigate the impacts of climate change on communities from a human rights perspective and takes an anthropological approach to understanding environmental justice. We will be engaging with critical literature, stories from impacted communities and scientific information throughout the program to gain insight on all significant factors relevant to this issue. We will also engage with various community partners who are impacted or work on issues surrounding environmental racism, colonialism, or other inequalities to learn about the approaches they take to mitigate the consequences of climate change. By learning more about these strategies, we want to have a better understanding of human rights and the effectiveness of framing climate change discussions from this perspective, to hopefully help us think more critically about climate change and its impacts on the human rights of individual populations and communities.

The biggest problem facing the U.S. housing market is the lack of affordable homes. With housing prices rising across the nation, far too many individuals struggle to afford rent and other essential goods, while others live in substandard conditions or even without shelter. This affordable housing crisis has taken a toll on the mental and physical health of American households. Most notably, demographic data reveals that racial minorities disproportionately experience the affordable housing crisis and its resulting negative health outcomes significantly more than their white counterparts.

Our ASB aims to understand why the affordable housing crisis unduly impacts the health of minorities and survey what solutions are available to mitigate this problem. By meeting with policymakers as well as housing and health professionals, we can learn about the mechanisms by which unaffordable housing contributes to housing instability and poorer health outcomes across all communities. Current housing and health disparities are a reflection of both the past and present. America’s history of racist and discriminatory housing policies contextualizes the vulnerability of minorities to unaffordable rents, evictions, homelessness, etc. We hope to explore community and policy-based solutions by engaging with grassroots organizations developing fair, healthy housing opportunities for low-income households and homeless individuals. No single policy solution can effectively address the complex web of injustices surrounding housing, but we hope our ASB reveals how the expansion of affordable housing improves the health of minorities and can potentially amend other racial disparities.

According to CDC data from June 2020, Blacks account for 21.8% and Latinos for 33.8% of COVID-19 cases in the US; however, these groups comprise only 13% and 18% of the total population, respectively. This disproportionate impact of coronavirus on minority communities correlates to a broader nationwide affliction: health inequity. Arising from avoidable social and economic practices, disparities in health (health inequities) explain the prevalence of COVID-19 among minority groups. Significantly, structural racism occupies the forefront of these social practices, culpable for the living and working conditions which exacerbate exposure to and severity of coronavirus infection. Therefore, our group will explore the mechanisms by which inequitable public policies contribute to coronavirus vulnerabilities such as preexisting medical conditions, high occupancy housing, and limited healthcare access.

Through our ASB program, we’ll engage with a variety of community partners using an intersectionality perspective. These organizations include local food banks combating food insecurity, legal advocates promoting humane prison conditions, and environmentalists pushing for harsher industry regulations. COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity for widespread progress grounded in health equity and engendered by local activism. In order to become more active citizens, we will examine present strengths of the communities we hope to learn about and strive to build upon them through mutually beneficial partnerships. Our program seeks to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to advocate for reforms in prison healthcare, expanded access to Medicaid and SNAP, stricter environmental legislation, and more to obtain a multifaceted understanding of the issue.

On average, about 48,000 youth are confined on any given day. The “school to prison pipeline” is a term denoting the path by which many youth become involved in the criminal justice system. Schools, touted as a place of education and growth, are marked by punitive policies and criminalization of students, especially minority students. This path, from education to incarceration, is facilitated by the recent growth of zero tolerance policies, school resource officers, and a rise in increasingly punitive thinking. Instead of nourishing and supporting youth in their development, schools have become the precursor to the criminal justice system. The pipeline does not simply end at the juvenile justice system; it continues all the way through to the criminal justice system, ending in mass incarceration at large. The issue of the school to prison pipeline could not be more pressing, as students are pushed into contact with the criminal justice system, and society is left with a growing population of incarcerated individuals.

Through our program, we will engage with local community partners to learn about the mechanisms of the school to prison pipeline and the effects of the juvenile justice system. We hope to challenge common misconceptions about criminality that ignore structural and systemic forces. While learning about the juvenile justice system, we plan to develop sustainable and ethical advocacy skills to remain civically engaged beyond our program.

Sex trafficking affects 4.8 million individuals globally each year. According to United States law, sex trafficking includes commercial sex acts induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or any minor engaging in sex work regardless of force. International law, however, does not explicitly define minors as sex trafficking victims. This discrepancy leads to differing perceptions of sex trafficking. The issue was initially treated, largely involving criminal justice, with carceral protectionism, which uses jail time as a cure for victims. However, the nuanced reality of sex trafficking, and its resulting trauma, has emerged, leading to survivor rehabilitation and trafficking being viewed and treated as more of a public health topic.

Our program will examine the misunderstandings surrounding sex trafficking and how it has emerged from the criminal justice space into the public health arena in the US over the past 20 years. In becoming a health issue, healthcare professionals have ended up on the frontlines of a problem for which they are insufficiently trained. We will examine the effects of variable perceptions of sex trafficking on the work of medical professionals in trafficking training, identification, and response. Through engaging with Houston-based, national, and international organizations combatting trafficking through a public health lens, we hope to challenge our participants to explore the subtleties of sex trafficking. By breaking down preconceived notions they may have, participants will become active anti-trafficking advocates within their own communities.

The United States’ recent changes to asylum and resettlement policies have created a new period of xenophobia and hostility for refugees. From cutting immigrant social services to attempting to allow states to block resettlement, the Trump administration has imposed several new difficulties on an already new and foreign environment for refugee persons. It is essential to understand the challenges refugees face, so that providers and policymakers can assist them during this period. Refugee women have unique experiences with healthcare, as they face struggles tied to their gender both pre- and post-resettlement, such as sexual and reproductive health and mental health issues, along with challenges to healthcare access owing to socioeconomic status, language barriers, the hospital system, and cultural and religious factors.

Our program will explore the nuances of American healthcare for women refugees, inclusive of trans, nonbinary, and genderfluid persons, across a wide array of topics, from different cultural ideas of disease and illness to policy efforts that support refugee livelihoods long-term. Through discussions with our community partners--from state resettlement agencies to grassroots organizations to health clinics--we will appreciate the power of community members’ personal narratives and initiatives alongside the multifaceted education that we will receive on the current stakeholders involved in refugee women’s health. Additionally, we will investigate the effect of the pandemic on refugee women’s health outcomes and healthcare access. From our experience, we hope to grow our understanding of asset-based community development and sustainable engagement in order to advocate for healthcare reform and equitable access for refugee women!