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UPA in the News

Van Jones visited Urban Promise Academy to celebrate our partnership with #YesWeCode and Dell

CHECK US OUT!
We are proud to have been featured in several news pieces over the years.

  • Warriors For Justice Book Launch: Rooted in a legacy of social movements for change, East Oakland youth and students from Urban Promise Academy in the Fruitvale district have created a social justice club known as Warriors for Justice. Over the last five years, they have compiled political speeches, news features and interviews, spoken word, poetry, street murals, and art that reflects their work as youth organizers and activists. Learn about what these young, inspiring leaders have to say about their journey, in Warriors for Justice: Our Future Has Its Eyes on You. They reflect on what it means to “be the change you want to see in the world,” since “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
  • Warriors Visit UPA: Juan Toscano Anderson was a surprise guest on Friday to give each player a pair of basketball shoes and give them tickets to the upcoming Warriors vs Jazz game. Our girls basketball players were connected with "Chicas Clinic" where they participate in basketball lessons at the Warriors Facility over the next 3  weeks! 
  • “This Is the Time” Check out a new music video including Urban Promise Academy scholar-warrior-artists, some bars by Ra'mauri Cash, and photo contributions by members of Warriors for Justice and 6th-grade students. “We don’t just want to be inspirational, we want you to meet our demands.” Youth activists have a message for all of us. Watch YVA’s original song & music video “This Is The Time”  featuring Alphabet Rockers, Raka Dun, and Destiny Arts dancers and join the movement to transform this moment from breakdown to possibility. Go to  ThisTheTime.org or text “THETIME” TO 56525 @youthvsapocalypse
  • TED-Talk and Ms. Magazine article (10/19/20) by Antonia Juhasz, featuring Angelika Soriano (an UPA alum and Warriors for Justice member) in Oakland to 67-year-old Sharon Lavigne in Louisiana, from native Waorani tribal leader Alicia Cahuilla in Ecuador to Emem Okon in Nigeria, and even to Senator Kamala Harris in Washington, DC, women and girls are leading the way to the end of the fossil fuel era. Our challenge is will we have their backs and support their hard work on all of our behalf?
  • Former UPA PE teacher, Mr. Jackson, awarded Oakland 2020-2021 Teacher of the Year! 
  • UPA Artists in Mx. Crystal's class have the great honor to display their art work in the Oakland Museum! Please follow Mx. Crystal's Instagram to see the amazing work produced by our students! 
    Article on the ¡El Movimiento Vivo! Chicano Roots of El Día de los Muertos .
  • ​Ms. Eisenberg's ELD BOOST class featured in ELL spotlight! Read Article here  (December 2019)
  • Mr. Ramirez awarded Oakland 2019-2020 Teacher of the Year! 
  • Mx. Crystal's class featured at Oakland Museum!  
  • Click here to read student's sharing their growth with support from UPA's morning boost program 
  • ​Click here to read about the amazing work Ms. Lisa (6th Grade Humanities) is doing with her ELD morning boost class. 
  • Ms. Payne's 8th Grade History Class:  Change.org for undocumented immigrants 
  • UPA Girls Basketball, Jamba Juice,  and Golden State Warriors:
  • Former Science teacher, Ms. Hurab, featured on I am OUSD:  Leading Experiments in Science and Personalized Learning at Urban Promise Academy
  • Former teacher, Ms. Alli (Health Educator), featured on Health Line:  Teaching Lessons in Food and Life in Urban California
  • Student Iyyah Mustapha Featured as OUSD Spotlight! 
  • ​Mr. Ramirez featured as a HEROES Profile for Educate78
  • Former Principal ,Claire Fisher, is quoted in this New York Times article about the Summit Basecamp Model
  • Education Week highlights UPA in this piece, "Fulfilling an Urban Promise in Oakland"
  • Read the press release about UPA being named one of six "breakthrough schools" to be awarded a Next Generation Learning Challenge (NGLC) personalized learning grant.
  • This audio piece ("Are These Same Stars in Oakland?") on our WILD program was released in May 2015. 
  • UPA was the first Oakland public school ever accepted into the National Center for Earth and Science Education's Space Flight Student Experiments Program! Learn more here. You can also watch ONews' video on our space-minded scientists here.
  • Van Jones visited UPA to celebrate our partnership with #YesWeCode and Dell. At the event our students received more than 200 Chromebooks! Watch video here.