About Rethink

We are a group of students in New Orleans who want to rethink and rebuild our schools after Hurricane Katrina. Our vision is simple: a great education for every kid in our city, no matter the color of their skin, what neighborhood they stay in or how much money their parents make. No one deserves a voice in rebuilding New Orleans schools more than the students who go to these places every single day. That means us!

Rethinkers come from all over New Orleans. Most of the kids are middle schoolers. We have high school interns and one “prethinker” who is only eight years old. We are writers and photographers and designers and public speakers.

In early 2006, a group of community organizers, artists, architects, media experts and educators began organizing Rethink. In mid-2006, they brought twenty middle school students (us) together for our first summer school. Every kid was recovering from a hard year that included Hurricane Katrina, losing our houses, leaving the city, and going to new schools away from home.

The time away (six months for some of us, a year for others) was scary but eye-opening. For the first time most of us saw school bathrooms with toilet paper and soap, libraries with books and hallways with lockers. It made us realize what good schools actually look like. We’re about to start our fifth year rethinking schools back here in New Orleans.