Senior African American Leadership members and its sponsor are taking a field trip on Fri. Nov. 8, to go visit Webster University and go see a play called the Tuskegee Airmen.

The play Tuskegee Airmen is about six men who struggled to be apart of the US Air Force because of the extreme racism in 1941. Additionally, Webster University was the second college to admit African Americans. The members and sponsor are going to Webster University for a college visit to have a tour around the campus and take them trough the admission process for college. After the tour of the Webster University they are going to go see the Tuskegee Airmen play because it contributes to what the Senior African American Leadership deals with: racism towards African Americans and how they overcome it.

“When we meet we talk about being minorities or any problems we’ve experienced, we also talk about what we plan on doing outside of school,” senior Austin Knott, said.

Senior African American Leadership is a group of seniors that join to be a representative body that show concerns towards race. The club meets about every other week and sometimes the members talk about issues regarding college. They also are a mentoring leadership group so if there is any problems in the building regarding race they are there as a spokes people that meet with the principle about problems that go on in school. They also help freshman which in return helps with the achievement gap.

“What I am seeing, and I’ve been here for four years, this year freshman are doing better than they were four years ago, so I think some things are getting better,” sponsor Mary Kerr-Grant, said.

The achievement gap is educational measures between the performance of groups of students, race andgender. The achievement gap shows up in grades, standardized-test scores, course selection, dropout rates, and college-completion rates, among other success measures. It is usually used to describe the troubling performance gap with African Americans. This is where the Senior African American Leadership comes and tries helping the incoming freshman to help better the achievement gap.

“I believe that the group helps freshman, and in my opinion that’s effective because they will be representing FHN after us,” senior Dejah Lasenberry, said.