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Aurora is the most diverse city in the state and ranks 17th among the most diverse cities in the country, according to a 2020 survey by U.S. News & World Report.

Students in Aurora Public Schools (APS) come from more than 130 countries and speak more than 160 languages, according to the district, and as of 2018, 19.9% of Aurora鈥檚 residents were born outside of the U.S., compared with a national average of 13.7%.

Amouzou, who is one of these residents, entered APS at age 10 after growing up in Lom茅, Togo. He arrived two grade levels ahead of his peers and had only one Black male teacher throughout his time in the district, he says.

As , there is a significant body of research stating that 鈥渟tudents tend to benefit from having teachers who look like them, especially nonwhite students.鈥� Yet while students of color make up 85% of the APS population, faculty of color represent only 20% of the district鈥檚 educators, .

This trend persists at the highest levels of educational organizations, as Amouzou found after graduating from 麻豆免费版下载Boulder to begin his teaching career in 2013.

His first position was at a Denver charter school led, he says, by a white American male in his 30s named Chris. Next he taught at the African Leadership Academy in Roodepoort, South Africa, where the CEO was, again, a white American male in his 30s named Chris.

鈥淚 constantly went to organizations that were basically led by folks who didn鈥檛 have that lived experience,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd then you see the hypocrisy and the tensions that their organizations set up.鈥�

Fueled by those experiences, Amouzou and Nathan Pai Schmitt launched their own education nonprofit in 2015, which aims to create a more equitable and inclusive system of education rooted in community and student empowerment.

Originally called HackSchool, the non-profit was renamed 鈥撯�撯�渁 combination of our families鈥� languages meaning 鈥榯o humbly offer a solution,鈥欌�� Pai Schmitt told the

In 2016 they as one of former President Barack Obama鈥檚 Kid Science Advisors and in 2017 they earned Teach for America鈥檚 Social Innovation Award.

That October, Amouzou found himself in a coffee shop with two friends from his early teaching days: Jones, whose language arts class once led a workshop with Amouzou鈥檚 seventh graders, and her former student Ariana Villalovos, who now teaches ninth grade ethnic studies at Empower.

Together they dreamed up a school created for the community, by the community. And after nearly two years of meeting with students, parents and community members to develop a plan, they submitted their application in 2018. Of the eight organizations that expressed interest that year, Empower is the only one to open its doors.

While many organizations are willing to invest resources in students like those at Empower, they rarely give students a voice in deciding how those resources are used.

鈥淪o let鈥檚 start to restructure that and flip that on its head,鈥� Amouzou says. Students at the school are taught early and often that transformative community change is theirs for the making. During a two-hour block called FLOW, they research and propose solutions to real-world problems. And this summer, two of them earned $5,000 each in contracts to consult with a local foundation.

鈥淚 know that I鈥檓 going to come to school today and I鈥檓 not just going to do physics,鈥� student Maurice Robinson says . 鈥淚 know that I鈥檓 going to come to school today and we鈥檙e going to talk about physics and then we鈥檙e going to talk about the displacement of people from Aurora.鈥�

This idea of the school as an integral part of the community was put to the test when the pandemic hit. As of September, Empower had raised $221,290 and had granted $141,524 directly to families鈥撯�搑elief efforts that fall under the headline 鈥渓ove in action鈥� on the school鈥檚 website, where language is intentionally used to create a sense of intimacy, Amouzou says.

鈥淔or me, one of the biggest things I took away from the Department of Communication is really understanding framing discourse and the power of rhetoric,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen you understand the vicious legacy of these intersectional systems of oppression, you understand that one of the things that is most stripped from our systems鈥撯�揺specially in this country鈥撯�搃s a sense of intimacy. Most people go through systems and feel dehumanized; they feel objectified.鈥�

That particular lesson stuck for a reason.

As he took classes on communication and social justice, Amouzou realized that the same issues plaguing his external world were festering internally. While presenting at TEDxBoulder in 2019, he described how therapy helped him identify the ways that, as an immigrant, the world鈥檚 history played into his own history of self-sabotage and avoiding intimacy.

Self-love and personal empowerment shouldn鈥檛 be radical qualities. But in a country where messages of racism, sexism, bigotry, xenophobia, ageism and classism infuse our everyday lives, they are.

If we鈥檙e looking for people with the imagination, lived experience and determination required to overhaul centuries of corrosive history and build a more equitable future, Amouzou says, these are the qualities we must cultivate in students鈥撯�搕he seeds from which the buds of innovation will bloom.

After all, the purpose and power within each of us is inherent. They need only to be named and embraced.

鈥淕rowing up, I thought my name was a privilege and a curse,鈥� Amouzou says, referencing his first name, Wisdom.听鈥淎s an adult, I see it as mainly a gift. Every time people said my name, they were affirming me.鈥�