Chartae Witherspoon (CAEO) and 10 students from the Upward Bound Math & Science Center participated in the Good Trouble Book Club, sponsored and initiated by the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) in honor of late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. The club met twice over the course of six weeks to discuss the chapters of Lewis' Across That Bridge. President Keith E. Whitfield participated in the book club, discussing one of the chapters with the students. In addition to reading the book, students were instructed to participate and create a civic engagement project. This project encouraged them to get into "good trouble." They decided to partner with Helping Hands of Vegas Valley with efforts to help senior citizens in need of food. These young leaders created flyers, promoted, and successfully hosted a canned food drive for senior citizens. As a result, they were able to donate more than 97 pounds of food to Helping Hands. Not only did these students plan, execute, and donate, they also participated in a short video explaining what "good trouble" means to them. One of the students, Guadalupe Negrete, assisted with successfully executing this project. Following the summer project, they created an e-poster of the journey, and submitted their work to the COE to compete with other TRIO programs throughout the country. UNLV Upward Bound Math & Science Good Trouble Book Club won first place! As a result of this accomplishment, two students along with Witherspoon and Jennie Johnson (CAEO) will be attending the COE conference in Atlanta where the students will share their experience and the "good trouble" they were able to accomplish this summer.
