Amped Studio Afterschool: Transform Yourself, Transform the World

Amped Studio Afterschool at Broadmoor High School kicked off at the end of September with a lot of love and excitement in the air. On Mondays and Wednesdays students gather after school for Transform Yourself Studio, a supportive community that gives students space to set goals and provides them with the homework help, social emotional skills, and tutoring support they need to reach those goals. At Transform The World Studio, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, students are invited to apply their talents and gifts to be the change they want to see in the world.

Enrollment filled up quickly, and after just a few weeks of programming we are already seeing the impact of careful attention to building beloved community together. Our first few weeks were focused on establishing a culture that is driven by young people: students created agreements that align to our core Amped values and reflect how they want to treat each other, and be treated, in Amped Studio. A student "culture keeper" reviews those agreements at the start of every session. This commitment to honoring the norms we set together is one way that students are claiming Amped Studio as a space for themselves to practice beloved community, healing justice, and radical imagination not as lofty ideals, but as everyday ways of being together that change the world.

Students in Transform Yourself Studio engaged in an exercise to set visions for the lives they most want to live in the future. They then created goals for how they want to use their time in tutoring studios on Mondays and Wednesdays to help them achieve their vision. After the first time breaking into tutoring studios, one student shared in our closing reflection that she now feels "hungry" for the science test that had previously felt like a chore. By aligning student-driven goals with a supportive environment to reach those goals, we hope to amplify hope across campus. One day at a time, Broadmoor High students are experiencing real paths to achieving their dreams.

One afternoon in Transform the World Studio we asked, "What does your own creative studio space look like?" Students wrote poems and drew pictures, made collages, and opened up to a deeper conversation about what it feels like to be in a space where you can truly express yourself. After a group conversation about pronouns and gender identity grew from the group's dialogue, one youth asked Dr. West, "Where were you all last year? I've really needed this."

We are so grateful to be grounded this year at Broadmoor High School where we're able to build this beloved core of youth leaders who will contribute—and are already contributing—so much to our world. Amped Studio is amplifying our own hope for the future of our work as we imagine possibilities for the rest of this school year and beyond. Big dreams and visions are welcome at Amped Studio, and we can’t wait to see them bloom!

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