Being 1.5 in 100

For the February issue of tjTODAY, fellow EIC Katherine Du and I embarked on a mission to document the incredible stories of African-American staff and students at Jefferson. The situation in our school is unique in that we have had historically low numbers of African-American students who are accepted into and enroll at our school. Compared to nearby schools and districts, these numbers have often been at the center of endless debates about the inclusion of underrepresented minority students. In our process, we sought to illuminate the people that are behind those statistics, the humans that are more than just the numbers themselves, discussing their background, influences, history, and perception of their place within our community. This ultimately became our cover story for that issue.

I am releasing all the full-length versions of those stories on tjTODAY Online as part of a series with our first installment on Feb. 10. Stay tuned! All articles will be under the Tag “Being 1.5 in 100″ on tjTODAY.org. On Feb. 8, the day the issue comes out, we will also be posting a Google Form to gather interest in the series and email notifications when there are new articles put up.