Race Amity Leadership Academy
The driving element of the program are Race Amity Fellows, college students who are granted fellowships with stipends to mentor the high schools students in the Saturday program. The program has both learning and service components. Community colleges are the targeted partner institutions for granting the Race Amity Fellowships. This reaches out to a very deserving, mature community of learners, whose talents are frequently overlooked in the higher education schema. They are also often underserved compared to the financial assistance afforded to students at four-year colleges.
The initial program is partnering with Roxbury Community College to grant three Race Amity Fellowships. Initial funding for RALA has been generously provided by TJX Companies, and NCRA is seeking additional support to expand the number of participating community colleges and Race Amity Fellows, as well as the number of students served.
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Dwight W. Allen Race Amity Fellowship Program
Dwight Allen at his desk, circa 1970.
The Race Amity Leadership Academy is led by college students who receive paid fellowships named after Dwight W. Allen, a visionary thinker, educational reformer, and influential dean of the UMass Amherst College of Education from 1968 to 1975.
Dwight W. Allen was known for his innovative approaches to leadership and educational reform. Dedicated to the notion that education is a primary key to advancing access, equity, and social justice, he recruited large numbers of students of color to the college. Allen’s iconoclastic initiatives included admitting students with unconventional credentials, giving students more involvement in governance, allowing them to create their own curricula, and eliminating traditional grading.
His actions helped lay the groundwork for what would become the college’s social justice mission. Of the 800 doctoral graduates during his tenure, 200 (25%) were people of color in a state with a minority population of about 5% at that time. Allen personally attributed his passion for equity and inclusion to his belief in the Baha’i Faith, which holds as its central principle the unity and oneness of humanity.
News and Stories
RALA Spring 2023 Session Kicks Off
The spring 2023 session of the Race Amity Leadership Academy kicked off with a field trip to Boston’s Museum of African American History on March 11, 2023. This initial pilot program involves middle and high school students connected to the Boston Boys and Girls...