Fall 2024 Learning Collaborative Symposium

Y(our) Piece of the Puzzle: Student Movements Past, Present, and Future

with guest presenters by Storm Ervin, Ayanna Poole and Andrea Thurston

moderated by Gaurav Jashnani, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Africana Studies and Social Transformation

University of Missouri alumni and organizers of Concerned Student 1950 (CS1950)* will engage participants in discussions around the impact of student movements through critical analysis of the impact of activism at Missouri’s flagship and beyond. In understanding the historical lens of CS1950 and how organizers’ work shaped the trajectory of personal and professional development, attendees are encouraged to recognize how their fight against injustices fits into the larger struggle for liberation.

*Concerned Student 1950 was a student movement at the University of Missouri that emerged in response to persistent and systemic racism at the institution. 

About the presenters: 

Storm Ervin is a national violence and victimization researcher and technical assistance provider. Her work focuses on community violence. gun violence, and domestic violence interventions. She works with national and local government and organizations to strengthen the evidence base around these topical areas. At Mizzou, she was a founding member of Concerned Student 1-9-5-0 and involved in student activism movements. She draws on her experience as an organizer to endeavor toward safer and free communities. 

Ayanna Poole, founding member of Concerned Student 1950, received her BA from the University of Missouri in 2015, majoring in English Literature and minoring in both Sociology and African American Studies. She now serves the great state of Texas as an educator, instructional coach, author and publisher. Her contributions to the world of activism continue through secondary education as she trains teachers of Dallas, TX how to develop culturally competent classrooms to build leadership, inclusivity and academic excellence in inner city schools. She looks to further her education by attending law school in the Fall of 2027.

Andrea Thurston, founding member of Concerned Student 1950, has worked toward educational equity as an educator, analyst, and consultant. Her platform comes from her endeavors at the University of Missouri post-Ferguson to encourage the institution to confront its inequities, using past shortcomings as a framework to create an equitable and intersectional learning environment for the future. Thurston earned a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from the University of Missouri and a Master of Science in Education and Education Policy from Johns Hopkins University. Her journey navigating inequitable systems fuels her passion for closing achievement, attainment, and opportunity gaps. She seeks to continue to yield successful policy change on the local and state level while keeping the voices of historically excluded communities at the center.

Gaurav Jashnani is a scholar, educator, and organizer working at the nexus of psychology, Black studies, and critical university studies. They hold a master's in counseling from Columbia University and a doctorate in psychology from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, with certificates in Africana studies and American studies. Prior to working at Hampshire, they were a postdoctoral fellow at CUNY's Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.