Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits has expanded its relationship with social impact education innovator EVERFI to fund diversity-themed online courses for high school students in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties in Florida, and Dallas and Collin Counties in Texas.
The initiative extends the mission of the Southern Glazer’s internal C.H.E.E.R.S. to Diversity employee program to local communities by providing educational opportunities meant to empower individuals to reach their fullest potential. C.H.E.E.R.S. stands for Connecting, Hardworking, Educating, Empowering, Respecting, and Serving.
“We are incredibly proud to help make both the 306: African American History and Diversity Foundations for High School courses available to schools in both of our headquarters’ markets,” says Terry Goods, Senior Director, Diversity & Inclusion for Southern Glazer’s. “Not only because we strongly believe that education leads to opportunity, but also because we know that being able to respect peoples’ differences starts with learning about the different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences that shape who we are.”
The 306: African American History course brings to life a number of the important leaders and events whose impact changed the fabric of American life. The course covers four key areas — slavery, emancipation and reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement — and then concludes with a capstone exercise to help students reflect on lessons learned. The Diversity Foundations for High School course introduces learners to key concepts of identity, bias, power, privilege and oppression, and establishes the importance of ally behavior, self-care and creating inclusive spaces and a culture of respect. Together these two courses are meant to provide students with a better understanding of the history of African Americans in the U.S. so they can connect those experiences to events happening today, as well as learn some of the skills necessary to have respectful and welcoming interactions with the diverse group of people they interact with every day.
Students who complete one or both courses will also be eligible to participate in the Southern Glazer’s C.H.E.E.R.S. to Diversity Scholarship Contest. After completing either course, students can submit a short essay responding to one of three prompts that asks them to reflect on what they’ve learned and share how they can continue to support diversity in their own communities. Four winning students will be selected by a committee of judges from Southern Glazer’s and each will be awarded a $2,500 student scholarship in the form of a Leaf 529 College Savings gift card. The teachers of the winning students will also receive a $250 DonorsChoose gift card to help fund a project of their choice.
To learn more details about the contest and eligibility visit sgdiversity.everfi.com.
Teachers, guidance counselors, and school administrators in the available counties who are interested in implementing this program for the 2020-2021 school year should contact the following EVERFI Implementation Managers:
- In Florida: Giovana Espejo at gespejo@everfi.com; and
- In Texas: Stephanie Onyeador at sonyeador@everfi.com.
Southern Glazer’s, through its The Youth Alcohol Awareness and Education Foundation, Inc., has also worked with EVERFI since 2017 to bring the AlcoholEdu for High School online curriculum to schools in parts of Florida, Texas, and now this school year, to New York.
