Island Trees Board of Education Recognizes Students for Getting A Voice
April 2006

Superintendent of Schools, Mr. James Parla and the Board of Education presented 7th and 8th grade girls with a certificate of recognition for participating in a Leadership Workshop with Toni Blackman hosted by the Get.A.Voice Project and Hofstra University at Murphy Junior High School, Stony Brook. Toni Blackman, U.S. hip-hop ambassador, taught the girls how to write freestyle raps and spoken word poems to express their thoughts on issues such as cliques in schools, body image, self-esteem, family problems, and the war in Iraq. The girls left the full-day workshop with a sense of empowerment, purpose and motivation to become leaders in their school and community. (On left, Ms. Nicole Wittschiebe, Get.A.Voice Coordinator and Special Education Teacher, and on right, Ms. Cathleen Potorski, Assistant Principal).