Roosevelt University partners with a local high school and promises its students full financial support if admitted.
“Born out of struggle and the struggle continues.”
This is the motto of Chicago’s Social Justice High School, one of four small, autonomous schools on one campus, Little Village Lawndale High School Campus.
LVLHS was the result of a 19-day hunger strike in May 2001 by 14 community residents demanding that funds allocated for a new high school be used for that purpose. Officials had reneged on promises to build the school, instead diverting the funds to other priorities.
The high-profile community protest was a lesson in social justice. And the success of that struggle spawned the four-school complex, which opened in fall 2005 on the West Side of Chicago. The campus contains Multicultural Arts High School, World Language High School, Social Justice High School and Infinity: Math, Science and Technology High School. The separate schools share the library, sports facilities and auditoriums.
Adding to its unique origin, SoJo, as Social Justice High is called, is now part of an educational experiment initiated by Roosevelt University president Dr. Chuck Middleton. Middleton, impressed by SoJo students during a school program a few years ago, acted on impulse.
