Our 2023 - 2024 Impact & New Year Announcements

"I really like the Humanities Amped program so much. It really helped me out. I really feel like y’all family. Y’all make me feel welcome, make me feel at home. It’s just another space I can go to to clear my mind and it just feels good. And I really love y’all for that.”
​
- Amped Student

The school year is off and running, and Humanities Amped is busy deepening connections with our family here at Tara High School! This fall, we want to celebrate and thank Dexter Jackson as he departs for other pursuits. We are grateful to Dexter for his creativity, energy, and advocacy for young people, and we look forward to all of the good work he will continue to do in our community.

As an organization, we are always striving to live intentionally and authentically in our values. Toward that aim, Humanities Amped has shifted its leadership structure to a collaborative model. By distributing the role of Executive Director among a team of three co-directors, we hope to increase our capacity to innovate and respond without falling into the burnout that threatens so much good nonprofit work. We love our community and we love this work, but the challenges we face are many. We know that we are better equipped to face these challenges when we face them together, and we are excited to live out for ourselves the collaboration, communication, and trust that we work so hard to develop in our students.

MEET THE CO-DIRECTORS

LaChanda Harris, LCSW

LaChanda began working as Humanities Amped’s first Community Care Manager in 2022. As Program Co-Director: Healing-Centered Pedagogies, LaChanda will expand on the transformative work she has done at Tara High to establish trauma-informed, restorative justice-aligned programming that has been responsive to the needs of the students and educators we work with. These initiatives have included skills-based small groups, the establishment of an on-campus food pantry, and restorative responses to ongoing, emergent needs. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, LaChanda is expertly positioned to lead dynamic programming that fosters personal growth, emotional intelligence, accountability, and social connection.

Anna West, PhD
Anna, along with Destiny Cooper, founded Humanities Amped as a doctoral action-research project in 2014. Anna served as Humanities Amped’s first Executive Director when the organization incorporated in 2018, and has remained engaged in classroom programming since stepping out of that position in 2023. She brings to her new role of Program Co-Director: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies over two decades of youth development expertise, along with specializations in writing pedagogies, arts-based education, and organization building.

Emma Gist, PhD
Emma began working at Humanities Amped as a doctoral student in 2018. As Humanities Amped’s first Education Director, she led the development of classroom-based programming at Tara High School that served as the foundation of the current Amplified Classrooms pathway. Her work at Humanities Amped also includes the establishment of the Adelante program as well as a series of culturally responsive, healing-centered professional development workshops for educators. In her current role as Development & Communications Director, Emma is responsible for Humanities Amped’s storytelling and research endeavors.

2023 - 2024 IMPACT

High school is about much more than academics: it's about building relationships, finding a sense of purpose, and becoming yourself. Our evaluations  show that Humanities Amped makes a significant impact on young people’s sense of connection and well-being, outcomes that directly influence their academic achievement. 

• Last year, Humanities Amped was able to directly serve over 140 students through classroom programming that engaged students in joyful, meaningful learning.
  
  
• In the fall semester, 56 sophomore students enrolled in the tenth grade Amplified dual enrollment course, 94% of whom passed with a C or higher. In the spring semester, 48 students enrolled in the next Amplified dual enrollment course, 100% of whom passed with a C or higher. These passing rates, which indicate that students received both high school and college credit, far outpace other dual enrollment courses at THS that are outside of the Amplified Classrooms Pathway.
  
  
• Over 30 students participated in skills-based small groups, including MTTRS of the MYND, Girls Empowerment Club, and Poetry Team.
  
  
• Over the course of the year, Humanities Amped hosted a series of Lunch & Learns, connecting students to local professionals and introducing them to several career options.
  
  
• We provided professional development to over 15 teachers, including a workshop series focused specifically on the needs of English Language Learners.
  
  
• Finally, 28 Adelante volunteers provided over 900 hours of support to English Language Learners across 23 Tara High School classrooms.

One of the students who placed 2nd at the 2024 district-wide Poetry Competition shared that “being a part of the poetry team, it was really good for me to actually find myself and [see], ooh, this is things I like, people actually get me, and I’m really here for something. This is my purpose, maybe.“

One student who participated in MTTRS of the MYND as well as an Amped Dual Enrollment class shared that “Humanities Amped is really a program about helping you develop your emotions and build up what you can accomplish for yourself and for other people. Humanities Amped is really a fun program, it’s a good space. It’s a place where you can go and have fun, go and talk about how you feel. It’ll never be a space where you just get aggravated or mad, but if you do get mad, then they’ll help you. They won’t get mad at you for being mad, they’ll help you develop that feeling and that emotion. And help you better yourself.”

Students in Amped Programming at Tara High who maintained and/or improved social/emotional skills across all five CASEL domains: 87.04%

Students in Amped Programming at Tara High who gained knowledge of soft skills: 70.37% 
This percentage represents the number of students who indicated that they built confidence in at least two of the following four soft skills: working as part of a group, planning & organizing their time, active listening, and problem solving.

Students in Amped Programming at Tara High who showed improvements in reading and language skills: 62.96%

This percentage represents the number of students who indicated that they built confidence in at least two of the following three literacy/language skills: writing skills, public speaking, and active listening.

​When Ben [pseudonym] began his Humanities Amped Dual Enrollment Communications class, he was disengaged. He spent class scrolling on his phone instead of connecting with the course material, his peers, or his teachers. In his words, “when I have my off days I just feel like I don’t want to communicate with nobody, I just want to be in my own bubble.” As the Amped educators in his class worked to reach Ben, he came to realize two things: the course content offered authentic meaning to his life, and his teachers genuinely cared for him. In an interview, Ben explained, “I saw that they cared. [At first] I didn’t notice that. But starting to get through the middle of the class, and getting through the end, I really saw that they helped.” Ben also shared that he “started to notice we were going over things that we use every day. I didn’t really think of the class as a grade, I thought of it as a way to better myself. And as I was excelling in the class, getting all my assignments in, making A’s, I started to notice that I was really actually communicating better.”
Because Humanities Amped approaches center the combination of belonging and meaningful learning, Amped students are more likely to stay in, finish, and thrive in school. In Ben’s words, this dynamic approach meant that he “started to actually get interested, and my phone was always up. [What interested me was] the fact that it helped me better. As a human and all.” Ben’s story demonstrates that connectedness at school is possible for young people, and that targeted interventions like those applied by Humanities Amped can powerfully transform students’ learning experiences.

LOOKING FORWARD

Amplified Classrooms Pathway 
The Amplified Classrooms Pathway, a multi-year, cohorted series of courses grounded in challenging, meaningful learning sustained through supportive relationships, has expanded to include a junior-level dual-enrollment course. In Amplified Classrooms, highly skilled Amped educators facilitate project-based learning that engages students in ways where traditional high school curriculum falls short.

Freshman Seminar Through collaboratively planning, writing, and illustrating original children's books about overcoming challenges, students in Freshman Seminar gain foundational literacy and collaboration skills for academic success. Students in this course also build foundational academic and literacy skills through career exploration and strategic reading and writing pedagogies. 

Poetry & Performance Lab In this course, students explore generative themes through creative writing and storytelling, using performance strategies to develop and refine student literacy and interpersonal skills. 

Writing the World: Dual Enrollment Composition  In this course, through which students earn both high school and college credit, students learn fundamentals of English composition through civically-engaged project-based learning that invites students to identify and research contemporary social issues that matter to their own lives.

Youth Voice & Engagement Initiatives 
These initiatives equip Tara High students with leadership skills and strategies to navigate interpersonal and community-wide relationships, thereby increasing school connectedness.

MTTRS of the MYND In MTTRS of the MYND students meet 1-2 times a week to develop skills for emotional regulation, self-awareness, and interpersonal well-being. Through open dialogue and skill-building activities, students identified by faculty as needing additional support develop the tools necessary to navigate life’s challenges. 

Girls Empowerment Club This supportive community is designed to help young women develop self-confidence, authentic relationships, leadership skills, and a strong sense of identity. It provides a safe space for girls to explore their potential, overcome challenges, and build positive relationships with peers.

Poetry Team Through regularly hosted writing workshops, the Amped Poetry Team nurtures students’ potential as writers and community story-tellers, inviting them to re-imagine the world around them. This year, Humanities Amped will also re-establish Fresh Heat, an Open Mic series open to youth across Baton Rouge. 

Student Government Association Beginning this year, Humanities Amped will lead and manage Tara High School’s Students in the SGA will receive highly supportive, strategically designed training in peer-to-peer leadership and community/culture building as they serve the interests of the entire Tara High student body. 

Thank you for being a member of our Amped family! We are excited for what we will build together this year! ​

---

What's New at Humanities Amped

Humanities Amped is launching our Drinks & Ink Writing Workshop Series for Educators and Youth Workers!

Come join us for an evening of poetry, wine, and community. This is an ADULTS ONLY (21 and up) event. Space is limited, so RSVP here as soon as possible!