July 15, 2019—Tiara Sargeant, a 2014 graduate of Shaker Heights High School, has returned to the Shaker Heights City School District to serve as the advisor to the High School’s Student Group on Race Relations (SGORR). SGORR, founded in 1983, seeks to preserve black-white relationships throughout middle school and high school by facilitating discussions among students in Grades 4-9 using a diversity education curriculum.
Ms. Sargeant was an active member of SGORR and MAC Sister Scholars while she was a student at Shaker Heights High School. In her senior year, Ms. Sargeant won the Princeton Prize on Race Relations, a prestigious award which recognizes and rewards high school students who have had a significant positive impact through volunteerism on race relations in their schools or communities. Ms. Sargeant won the prize for her work in creating a curriculum to bridge the gap between suburban and inner city youth.
Currently, Ms. Sargeant is a program associate at True2U, a volunteer mentoring program that helps Cleveland Metropolitan School District eighth graders prepare to make the most of high school as the first step on the path to college and career readiness. She is a 2018 graduate of Hampton University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Communication.
“I think it’s important to be an alum working in the District,” Ms. Sargeant says. “For me, it was inspiring to see a lot of my teachers and advisors who were alums. I saw them grow and develop as professionals. They showed me that I could always come back home and make an impact on the lives of students.”
SGORR members must apply and try out to participate. The group meets weekly and schedules visits to classrooms in all buildings to lead conversations that address racial or other social issues that they perceive in their schools or society.
Learn more about SGORR online.