Cardozo students learning about various new programs offered this fall.
Friday mornings at Francis L. Cardozo Education Campus look a little different this school year. For the first 90 minutes of the day, students explore their interests through hands-on courses taught by representatives from local businesses and nonprofit organizations. At the same time, students develop the key financial literacy and interpersonal skills central to Cardozo’s new school model, which will prepare every student to graduate as an entrepreneur.
In 2023-24, Cardozo’s “Learning Lab Fridays” provide nearly a dozen options, including:
Developing a sustainable business with Tumaini DC, which designs and facilitates social and emotional learning curricula.
Theater and art activism with Imagination Stage, a theater group offering performances and classes.
DJ-ing and music production with Words Beats & Life, a longstanding hip-hop nonprofit supporting youth creativity.
Banking and financial literacy with Bank on DC, a collaboration of DC government and banks to promote access to banking.
Cardozo is one of six high schools currently participating in DC+XQ, a multi-year redesign partnership with DC Public Schools (DCPS). A key pillar of this work is community partnerships, one of the XQ Design Principles, that encourages connections outside the school building to give students concrete networking and learning experiences and help them thrive, even after graduation.
As part of DCPS’s Connected School model—which supports schools with meeting student and family needs, in and out of the classroom, through access to resources—Cardozo hired LaShawn Jones to bring the best of the DC community directly into the school building. As Connected Schools Manager, LaShawn listens to what students are asking for and the curiosities they want to explore and then finds the best community partners to bring those interests to life.
Cardozo’s community meets with WETATi Academy, a partner
that helps students create an entrepreneurial mindset.
Left to right: Cardozo Redesign Director Dr. William Blake,
WETATi Academy Founder Margaret Dureke, Connected Schools
Manager LaShawn Jones, and John Dureke.
For example, Cardozo students in the Tumaini DC course will define a problem, develop a business solution, and create a financial plan. By the end of the spring of 2024, they’ll pitch their original idea to a panel of local judges, and finalists will travel to Miami, FL to share their plan with investors. Winners from the national competition will get major funding and support to launch their businesses. A student from Ron Brown College Preparatory High School, another DC+XQ school, was a past winner, and all participating Cardozo students from this year have a chance to advance. “Written into our redesign model is students pitching directly to professionals—teenagers don’t usually get that experience,” said LaShawn.
We’re so excited about this opportunity and so many others that give young people a chance to engage with adults as professionals. Stay tuned for more about the community members stepping in to support DC+XQ high schools and the power of youth voice in shaping the future of learning.
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