Winning Messages

Why were all early entries from the San Diego area? Because lead designers of #USvsHate included educators from the San Diego region, with support from the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment, and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) and the Department of Education Studies, UC San Diego. Key partners included educators from the San Diego Area Writing Project and the California Reading and Literature Project (San Diego region). We piloted #USvsHate in spring 2018 and scaled #USvsHate across the San Diego region in the 2018-19 school year. Teaching Tolerance (now Learning for Justice) hosted a national scale-up in 2019-20.

Now Mica Pollock’s national group #Schooltalking and the San Diego Area Writing Project are continuing to build nationally, with support from the National Writing Project!

Follow us on Instagram for exciting entries as student work comes in.

---

“I enjoyed being able to use my creative abilities to showcase my voice and what I believe is right.”

---

“I liked that I was able to spread out within my surrounding community and was able to spark this campaign beyond my fingertips and get more people involved.”

---

“I enjoyed being able to express our opinions and perspectives. I enjoyed being able to see how other people interpreted many topics as well.”

---

“I liked how the project encouraged the class to have a meaningful conversation about the injustices and inequality that many people still face every day.”

---

“The students are actually stopping to look at the posters we have displayed in our hallways. Our public library representative was in our school and saw the work. The public library in town is now hosting a month of our #USvsHate images in their gallery for the town to see!”

---

“Only positive change! Totally encourages classroom discussions about important topics.” 

---

“It’s been liberating for some of these kids. Every day they’re walking through the halls, seeing these [#USvsHate messages]. Some teachers stop their group as they walk by and read them. It’s been powerful.”

---

“I asked students, ‘Should we do this with our group? With the school?’ And they said, we want to do it with the whole school. So we did it with the whole school. And we got hundreds of submissions.”