Building Bridges KC

Photo by Katherine McGinness 

According to sophomore Olive Henry, there is a divide at East. A divide between race, sexuality and socioeconomic backgrounds, all within one community. But between the gap, junior Lauren Winston can be found wearing a white t-shirt that explains the hope for the future — we work for change.

After the 2016 presidential election, Winston, as a black female, began to become more aware of a more negative connotation surrounding minority groups, specifically surrounding minority groups affected by Trump’s travel ban.

So Winston, following her t-shirt’s mantra, decided to make a change. A change that became a reality in August 2017.

“One of the worst things to do is try and argue about a topic that you don’t really know about and that you’re not knowledgeable in,” Winston said. “I just feel like people need to be informed and know the information about the topic they are trying to support or go against before they actually argue it.”

In order to combat this issue, Winston founded her own nonprofit organization called Bridges KC or “Bridges” for short. Bridges works to “bridge” the gap between people of different cultures within the community and brings students of all background together to learn about common interests. Bridges also works to educate the East community about diversity and cultures by bringing in speakers, often held at night.

While Winston primarily runs the organization, by organizing meetings over GroupMe and emailing speakers, she works closely with East’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, run by her mom, Bernie Winston and several East teachers including social studies teacher David Muhammed.

“Basically, we are promoting social issues in the community and allowing speakers to come in and talk to us about their story and inform us about the different issues that might happen in our school and our community. Especially since East doesn’t have a lot of diversity,” Winston said.

Since December, Winston and the Bridges student board have been working to expand their audience and bring in more guest speakers. Bridges has established a solid relationship with St. Teresa’s Academy, according to Winston, and together they are working on bringing a transgender woman, Samantha, to speak to students about her transitional journey.

For her first effort, Winston selected several board members including sophomores Emory Apodaca and Olive Henry. Together, along with East’s Diversity and Inclusion committee, Bridges was able to bring in Dr. Sofia Khan, a Muslim woman and public speaker, to East on Dec. 11. Kahn was able to help educate community members about the role of women in the Muslim faith with specific regard to feminism and the hijab, according to Winston.

According to the Bridges board, the event was a success, especially for their first event and Bridges received positive feedback from the audience. The student and community members were very supportive and interested in what Dr. Kahn had to say.

“We are looking to educate on more than just diversity,” Apodaca said. “My dad works as a psychologist so we’re thinking about bringing him in to talk about mental health.”

However, with educating the community on these sensitive topics comes risks, including negative comments from people who oppose these issues. But the team remains optimistic and is not going to stop their work based on a few negative people.

“I think that one of the big differences is that Bridges, our meetings and speakers are not mandatory in any way,” Henry said. “If you are going to disrespect the speakers that we bring that we think are important pillars in the community, then you can leave. We are not here for the negative connotation that you are bringing to our mission.”

Winston is proud of the work her organization has done and of Henry’s dedication and drive to the program. However, with graduation next year, Winston knows that she will eventually be leaving for college, and with that leaving behind her program. She hopes to leave the organization under Henry’s care. Henry plans to continue Winston’s mission.

“When we talk about growth, we always talk about the size of the audience but that is not the most important part to me,,” Henry said. “While [size] is still important, I feel that instead, it is the connection we form with our audience.”

In addition to more speakers, Bridges is working to create a broadcast of their speakers and become more present on social media.

In the meantime, Winston and Bridges are continuing to work to educate their peers about diversity and social issues — everything from mental health to different religious groups — and help to educate their peers.

And the team will continue to work. To work for change.