As senior Celeste Pelayo flipped through the curriculum guide, looking for another half-credit class, her eyes caught on something more: African-American Studies. The first of its kind to be offered across Seminole County, African American Studies is a semester-long honors course open to all students which focuses on the history of African Americans.

“It’s nice to know that we have the course now— even better, an honors course, and hopefully now that it’s introduced, it widens the eyes [of the class] to other schools,” said Pelayo.

The class is taught in a timeline-like manner using standards that are set by the state, but also includes influences from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. 

In this class, students will learn about topics like the African Diaspora, Civil Rights movements and West African Heritage. Though this is the first year for the class, teacher Amy Bingham enjoys the curriculum and is excited for the class’ future.

“We can focus on different topics that as a history teacher, we don’t always get as much time as we would like to look into. It’s exciting,” Bingham said.

Students taking the course are excited that more cultures are being explored and hope to see more people enroll in the future.  The acknowledgement of the course by the students has created a positive reception of the class and has even fueled the fire to bring about a remodeling of cultural understanding in the public eye.

“I feel seen by the school; the introduction is something long overdue,” senior Ciara Bibbs said. “I want to be a part of the change and involvement to show the county that there are students interested in our culture.”

Though there are concerns of racially-sensitive topics in today’s climate, Bingham feels that there should be no problem with said concerns as long as teachers follow the guidelines.

“I’m not sure exactly what the concern would be if educators use the standards and do right by history by showing as many viewpoints and perspectives as we can so that students can get a full, clear picture [that is] unbiased of historical events.”