The LEAD Fellowship: 7th-8th grade

Beginning in the summer before 7th grade and continuing for two years, the LEAD fellowship builds foundational academic and leadership skills. Fellows commit to year-round programming that expands their minds, their bodies, and their aspirations.

The LEAD COLLEGIATE Fellowship: 9th-12th grade

During high school Freedom Fellows, build on academic and leadership capabilities and start preparing to transition to college. Fellows experience independent travel, increased leadership in the SCFP and their communities, and develop a fluency for the college admission and financial process.

The SCFP Alumni Success College Program

After high school graduation, SCFP alumni participate in the Success Program ensuring that they are supported as they pursue higher education- whether that is at a university, community college, or licensure program. Fellows participate in weekly virtual mentoring calls, receive academic writing support, access mental health resources, and benefit from a monthly stipend.

The purpose of Freedom Summer is to expand our students' concepts of what it means to be a leader and a motivated student. We push our students academically, socially, and physically. Freedom Summer is difficult, hot, and life-changing.

For most of our students, Freedom Summer is their entry point into the Freedom Project and their introduction to the fellowship. Programming includes five weeks of intensive academic instruction in reading, math and rhetoric for our Fellows. Freedom Fellows also participate in other clubs that include visual arts, gardening, chess, photography, and fitness programming. We end our summer with camping trips to civil rights sites and one week spent on a college campus in a college-immersion experience.

For our 10th-12th grade students, Freedom Summer means taking college-bridge courses from real college professors! Fellows earn college credit by completing month-long courses in subjects that include logic, sociology, computer science and so much more. Freedom Summer also includes traveling for our older Fellows. Our 10th-12th grade students will fly to the east coast to attend rigorous summer programs. During these great adventures, they meet new people from around the world, visit new cities and colleges, and take classes on subjects not available in their schools!

"Education is the seed of Freedom.” This belief is what matters to us most. Our students receive academic support because our fundamental mission is to empower each student with the skills to be leaders. 

Freedom Fellows receive help finishing homework, completing projects, and studying for tests during study sessions four nights per week.  Fellows participate in book clubs where they read novels and articles that challenge their concept of freedom and identity. Our high school students also participate in College Cohort workshops and prepare for the ACT with math and English lessons.

During Freedom Summer, Fellows complete five weeks of core academic classes designed to prepare them for the next grade. These classes are taught by college interns who receive extensive training and support from our staff. Students take math, language arts, and rhetoric classes.

The Freedom Project is not designed to merely “keep young people off the streets.” Our rigorous focus on academics ensures that students can not only succeed in their local schools, but are able to compete with their peers nationwide.  

At the SCFP, we believe arts are a powerful way to share the history of the civil rights movement as well as express our ideas for change.  We engage our students in the arts through our visual arts, drama troupe, and the literary magazine.  

Visual Arts

Freedom Fellows learn to express themselves through various media in our visual art classes. Students paint, sculpt, draw, and design pieces of art while sharing their identity, hopes, fears, and ideas.

DRAMA

Freedom Fellows have the opportunity to share their knowledge of the freedom struggle in Mississippi through the Sunflower Freedom Troupe. The Troupe performs original plays written by Freedom Fellows. They have performed five original plays:

• A Boy Named Bobo, about the life and death of Emmett Till

• Something’s Gotta Change, about the sit-in movement in Mississippi

• Five Feet Four Inches Forward, about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer

• Thirty Years From Now, about school integration in the late 1960s

• Freedom Summer, about the summer of 1964 in Mississippi

The Drama Troupe also performs original student monologues and student-written plays.

Literary Magazine

Every year Unspoken's editorial board asks for submissions of poetry, rap, short stories and artwork from all middle-school and high school students in Sunflower County.  After carefully reviewing each piece, they select the best to publish in our annual book.  Unspoken is a unique opportunity for young writers and authors to be published and share their work with peers across the county.

To gain exposure to the world around them, Fellows participate in several educational trips. Many of these trips are culminating activities for workshops in which Fellows participate. These trips include visits to college campuses, civil rights museums and monuments, and literary performances. Fellows also participate in various conferences to extend their learning.

Our goal is to expose Fellows to college campuses within and outside the state of Mississippi. We also strive to extend their learning outside the LEAD Center through visits to civil rights museums and monuments that connect with discussions in our workshops.

During Spring Break, we continue our college visits and take our students to civil rights museums and monuments.

During the summer, we take our summer program on camping trips to civil rights monuments throughout the South. We also spend one week on diffferent college campuses to experience college life.    

Sunflower County has some of the worst health statistics in the country.  According to the CDC:

• 40.3% of adults are obese

• 14.8% are diabetic

• 35% are physically inactive

Poor diet is a major contributing factor in these health outcomes, and the lack of access to healthy, fresh food plays a significant role in determining the diets of adults and children.  

Our Heath training includes three core components that we believe are key to developing the next generation of healthy eaters and cultivators: science and health lessons, hands-on gardening activities and healthy cooking lessons. At the Freedom Project, we use our Sunflower Freedom Garden as a hands-on learning platform to build awareness and change around the food habits of our Freedom Fellows.    

After developing a love for fresh, tasty, local food, we get our Freedom Fellows up and moving!  Our students participate in fun fitness classes.  Activities range from capture the flag to circuit training, but the goal's the same: to sweat and have fun!