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Our Story
The Central Valley is home to a powerful history and powerful people, in which across
the world, people immigrated to this region with hopes and dreams of a better way to
live… Hopes that the continuation of poverty and violence experienced elsewhere will
no longer exist… with a knowledge and self-love that they deserved better.
And this power, knowledge, and love still lives in the generations today… but is
restrained by the institutions and systems we are required to exist in.
Central Valley Scholars began with an intention to heal the pain and harm that comes
with growing up in this region: growing up in school systems and institutions in which
our identities are undervalued, our needs are underserved, and we as humans are
underestimated.
At Central Valley Scholars, we understand that key information and tools needed to
advance for a post-secondary education are often gate-kept from our communities,
and when we do seek such support, we are often met with educators who lead with
injustice (e.g. racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, ableism, and more...) and don’t
care to help us.
Education For
All
.
And with this understanding, we wanted to create a space in which access to resources
and information for a post-secondary education are provided to all people… and our
community is one which folx feel welcome, safe, valued, cared for, tailored to, and
loved… not in spite of, but because of the intersectional identities they carry.
As we’ve continued this space and provided these resources, leading students to a
variety of different post-secondary educational pathways, we began to become more
critical of our work; realizing that
higher education isn’t the end all be all
… and these
institutions are rooted in things like capitalism, white supremacy, and the patriarchy –
and are designed to exclude and oppress our communities.
Thus, we had a conflict: we are sending students to institutions that by design will
further exclude and oppress them, in which some will end with degrees and an
opportunity for upward socio-economic mobility, and others won’t (e.g. they may end
without a degree and/or with a huge amount of fi nancial debt).
Tackling the questions: Why is a college degree needed for a livable wage in the fi rst
place? In what ways are we reproducing class hierarchies and white assimilation by
sending students to universities? Why can’t the knowledge from our ancestors, elders,
parents, and ourselves be just as, if not more, valuable than what is taught with a PhD?
And don’t get us wrong, we believe education is powerful. Education provides the
opportunity to understand ourselves, our histories, our ancestry, and the world around
us… and it provides the space to dream and imagine new realities, in which the harm
and pain we currently feel is held with love and a desire to make things better.
But this power goes untouched…
Because American culture values salaries over passions…
Because American culture values imagined prestige over a quality education…
Because American culture values exclusivity over accessibility, setting GPA
requirements and honor roll lists…
Because American culture requires students to assimilate to heteronormative
whiteness, tailoring their behaviors and actions in order to gain access to different
spaces instead of being authentically themselves…
Because American culture values objective knowledge over lived experiences, in which
the experts of social justice theory are those who have never had to experience
oppression in their everyday lives…
Because American culture values assimilation over student autonomy, in which students
must become as proximate to whiteness as possible, depriving them of self-
determination and liberation…
Struggling with these realities, a transformation in our organization emerged, in which
we’re not solely seeking to provide the resources so students can attain the education
they desire, but also the space for them
to dream of the university they deserve
.
At Central Valley Scholars, not only do we provide resources that increase access to a
post-secondary education, and empower students to make their educational and life
dreams a reality… but we also provide critical perspectives on these institutions, in
which students have the autonomy to understand their needs, values, goals, and
desired futures.
At Central Valley Scholars, we work to reimagine and transform education, in which
students go to classrooms, not because they have to, but because they want to and
share the common desire to make impactful change in our homes, in our communities,
and in the world...
At Central Valley Scholars, we have the ambitious goal of one day dismantling these
inequities, and creating a university that matches and fulfi lls these dreams, bringing the
power of education where it always belonged: the students.
Values & Beliefs
At Central Valley Scholars, we believe:
•
All people are scholars
, and carry unique perspectives, experiences, and
knowledge necessary to create an equitable world.
•
Self-autonomy and self-liberation for all people
, in which the power to decide
our futures and fi nd our freedom is held within ourselves.
•
Central Valley Scholars is a safe, welcoming, and loving space for all
peoples
, where the joy, power, and beauty of our intersectional identities are
uplifted and celebrated.
•
Education is powerful
, and provides the space to understand ourselves, our
histories, and the world around us… and the space to imagine necessary
transformations in our reality in order to create a more free world.
•
Co-creation and co-decision making
, in which the needs and dreams of the
community are centered in everything we do.
•
All people should be authentically themselves
in all the ways there are of
being (e.g. how we behave, dress, speak, love, etc.)
•
Central Valley Scholars provides the space to advocate for and dismantle all
systemic issues we experience
(e.g. racism, homo/transphobia, misogyny,
ableism, xenophobia, poverty)
•
In order to create a world without harm, it takes
critical reflection and
accountability within community
.
