Student, Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies at the Morris Campus,

Lunch Panel Speaker: Voices from the Hallway – Perspectives of Students and Parents

Frank Rivers, a senior at the Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies at the Morris Campus, was born and raised in the Bronx. In his senior year, Frank joined the newly created Morris Student Leadership Council, a student leadership body created to unify the Morris Campus and promote the campus' multiple peer mediation programs. As a leader at the Morris Campus, and a member of Sistas and Brothas United (SBU), Frank is dedicated to building a restorative culture in his school and ending the wave of student push outs in NYC public schools.

Sistas and Brothas United, the youth affiliate of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC), is a 12-year grassroots, membership-led organization of low-and moderate-income teenagers and high school students in the Northwest Bronx. SBU’s vision is to intentionally develop young people to think critically and independently about the current socio-economic and political landscape and develop strategies to bring justice to their schools and communities. SBU provides opportunities for young people to influence major decisions in their communities on policy issues of education, employment, community development, land-use and resource allocation.