Santa Cruz High Grad Seeks To Empower Black Youth

SANTA CRUZ, CA — Chloe Gentile-Montgomery was active in leadership programs during her tenure at Santa Cruz High School. She served as the Black Student Union president, went to weekend BSU workshops and attended annual United Black Student Unions of California conferences.

But she felt like she didn't have enough opportunities to learn about her history, she said. She yearned for places where she could fully be herself.

Now Gentile-Montgomery, a rising senior and ethnic studies major at Santa Clara University, is looking to create a space where black Santa Cruz County high school students can discuss topics that she wishes she'd learned earlier in her education.

This month, she will host her virtual Black Youth Empowerment Workshop to discuss icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. and tackle more modern topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement defunding police.

"I want them to feel they can empower each other," Gentile-Montgomery said.

Gentile-Montgomery, who co-chairs the SCU Together for Ladies of Color group, wants to discuss misconceptions about the Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Black Lives Matter. Looking at movements in years past can give students guidance on what worked and what didn't work, she said.

Figures like King have become sanitized and normalized over the years, and people have forgotten how much he struggled, Gentile-Montgomery said. Nearly three in four Americans disapproved of King at the time of his death.

Gentile-Montgomery envisions the workshop as a place where students can feel seen while discussing these issues through historic and ethnic studies perspectives. She said she wants them to know that schools can't operate without them and that they have power in making changing.

When Gentile-Montgomery graduates in the spring of next year, she hopes to empower the next generation by becoming a high school educator teaching ethnic studies — if that is a possibility — or history otherwise. She dreams of starting an after-school program for black youth.

Register for Gentile-Montgomery's workshop, which begins July 22, here.