Students on the new Ethnic Studies team for Holyoke High School's ninth Grade Academy have chosen this team because they are committed to the critical analysis and study of difference. In our Ethnic Studies English class, we will be analyzing the topics of identity, representation, rhetoric, and institutional oppression and discrimination.

We will engage in a full-year, in-depth discussion of race, gender, LGBTQ+ rights, and xenophobia through a variety of critical lenses, with a particular focus on the school to prison pipeline.

These 130 students come from a fiercely passionate and proud city, Holyoke MA, where there is a rich history of shifting cultures and immigration, but also one of classism, racism, and oppression.

Currently, Holyoke has the highest percentage of Puerto Ricans of any city in the 50 states, and it has long been a home where the rich and complex heritage of Puerto Rico thrives.

Holyoke High School was recently placed under state receivership, and at one time had the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state, but Holyoke is moving forward with a powerful determination, and its students are excited to become warrior-scholars on a quest to study, question, learn, educate, and fight.