Sunflower County Freedom Project:
Freedom School 2007

Sunflower Freedom Project: July 16 - 21, 2007

April 18, 2004: Sunflower Youths Kick Their Futures Into Gear

Though the year-round programming of the Freedom Project is exciting, any Freedom Fellow will tell you that the best part of Sunflower County Freedom Project is the summer. The Freedom Project, founded in 1998, seeks to develop a corps of academically capable, socially conscious, and mentally disciplined young leaders in the Mississippi Delta. Through six weeks of summer enrichment and a year-round program of academic tutoring, Saturday School classes, martial arts training, and educational travel, the Freedom Project is able to provide unparalleled opportunities for its capable students. By making the “Commitment to LEAD,” Freedom Fellows and their families dedicate themselves to a college-bound future.

On June 26, first, second, and third-year Fellows will begin their summer with two weeks of day school at the LEAD Center in Sunflower County. After two weeks of preparation, they will travel two hours north to The University of Mississippi in Oxford. For two weeks, Fellows will be challenged, encouraged, and motivated to push themselves to higher levels of achievement. Their intensive program of study includes a core curriculum of Math, Reading, and Writing, but is rounded out with electives such as Drama, Oral History, Journalism, and Debate.

After six weeks of classroom study, Fellows will then hit the road to experience a week of travel outside of Mississippi. First-years will take a tour of the civil rights sites of the South while second- and third-years will take their drama performance to Atlanta, Chapel Hill, and Washington, DC.