The Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) and Pride Unity Leadership Sisterhood Esteem (PULSE) programs at PHS aim to provide safe spaces for minorities. Advised by Coordinator of Student and Family Services Bethany Siddiqu, the MSAN program is open to all students and focuses on eliminating the opportunity and achievement gaps at PHS. The PULSE program, also advised by Siddiqu, has a similar goal. As an all-female program, PULSE strives to share knowledge of self, academics, and social concerns with young women at PHS.

“The goals are to create a community within the school for our students of color,” said Siddiqu. “These groups are opportunities to help them achieve their goals and to make a lasting impact.”

The PULSE and MSAN programs have collectively hosted a multitude of events at the high school to provide assistance to PHS students.

“We’re doing a canned food drive for Thanksgiving, [and] a coat drive for those in the school district that may not have winter wear,” said Siddiqu. “We’re also initiating a buddy system. [The] MSAN and PULSE students that are bilingual [are] going to be partnering with [English language learners] to help them throughout the school ... The school is naturally confusing, but imagine not knowing English or being new to this country.”

Beyond receiving guidance, members of MSAN and PULSE gain both communication and leadership skills.

“The MSAN and PULSE groups have been able to successfully [cultivate] leaders within the school that can help inform particularly [the] school administration, as well as the Board of Education,” Siddiqu said.

Joycelyn Brobbey ’22, President of the PULSE and MSAN programs, believes she has benefited greatly from these clubs during her time at PHS.

“They’ve made me more knowledgeable on certain issues that I wasn’t knowledgeable on before,” said Brobbey. “They’ve [also] just made me feel more confident ... [and] more open ... I get to be with some really cool people, and I get to do something that’s important to me.”

photo: [credit name="Laura Liu"]

As Vice President of both programs, Kyara Torres-Olivares ’22 ultimately wants to give minority students a comfortable space to talk with and get advice from their peers. After helping several English language learners with their schedules, Torres-Olivares, who is bilingual, came up with the idea for the partner system that is currently in the works.

“I thought to myself ... ‘Why don’t we already have a program that has a buddy system for these students, since they really don’t have any other help?’ Being the VP of MSAN was really helpful because I was able to [identify] a problem that I saw in the school and connect it to the students,” said Torres-Olivares. “I’ve been at the high school for four years, and I think I’ve been able to help other students in the school and connect to them and make them feel like this school is a safe space.”

Similar to other programs at PHS, COVID-19 has impacted both PULSE and MSAN. Despite that, Siddiqu hopes that attendance in the programs will soon return back to the pre-pandemic levels.

“When I took over the program, there weren’t that many students involved. I think that was mainly because of COVID-19. It was just hard to engage people through Zoom,” Siddiqu said. “And now that we’re in person, I think there’s more energy and excitement around joining the group.”

Torres-Olivares noted that as pandemic restrictions lift this year, the groups hope to take trips outside of school.

“We are also looking to take field trips and have mentors on them ... for any kind of job field. We’ll bring in people that work in those jobs and figure out how [students] can connect to different careers that they’re looking to go into,” Torres-Olivares said.

While both programs might be looking to grow, neither is new at PHS. With the MSAN nearing its tenth year and PULSE approaching its twentieth, these programs have been helping students at PHS for many years now. In fact, Siddiqu was once a member of the PULSE program herself.

“As a young student, I was a part of it. And now to be able to be the advisor for it, I feel like it’s just come full circle,” said Siddiqu. “I also feel a responsibility to keep the essence of PULSE, to keep it a group where girls feel empowered and supportive. And I’m hoping that that will inspire other young females when they go to college or wherever they go beyond high school.”