Minority Scholars Program attended their annual retreat on Saturday, February 25 at Northwood High School from 7am to 4pm. The retreat included new activities and performances that everyone got to experience.

The Minority Scholars Program was created to close the achievement gap for minorities in elementary to high school. The group was introduced to many people by the MSP sponsor, Sandy Young. This year’s retreat was a first time experience for many members of the club.

All members, sponsors and team leaders, came together in the auditorium to start off the retreat. Introductions and panels were presented to ask the MSP founders about the background information of the program and the achievement gap.

“The retreat was pretty good, it was my first one so it was pretty interesting,” junior Taylor Gondor said. The event included workshops that everyone got split up into. These workshops allowed people to engage with one another and it was a way to break the ice.

There were four workshops created to helped to encourage minorities to be proud of their heritage and intelligence. “It seemed like everyone was engaged [in the activities],” junior MSP president Victoria Joya-Euceda said.

After the workshops students gathered back to the auditorium, where speeches given by students in the MSP program called “Kid Talks.” Students would talk about their experiences with being a minority and education.

There were live performances by students that are a part of the program for everyone to enjoy. “Honestly I enjoyed performing,” junior Natalie Rodriguez said. She sang “Warrior” by Demi Lovato to inspire the audience of how strong everyone has the potential to be.

Along with singing, there were instrumental performances such as a marching band, drums, and piano. There was also spoken word and dancing representing the different cultures that the students come from. “There was this guy from Quince Orchard, he performed his original piano piece. I found that pretty cool and it was a really good one,” junior Shirlene Musau said.      

Next year’s annual Minority Scholars Program retreat will be hosted at Watkins Mill. “I think us hosting next year is going to be good for our program and really good for publicity for it at our school,” Young said.