“The League of Creative Minds firmly stands behind and fully believes that Black Lives Matter. The League of Creative Minds supports the self evident call for human dignity in the US and abroad. LCM strives to cultivate a diverse community of voices to teach delegates about violence, oppression, and racism. Systemic and structural issues in the United States exemplify the opportunity presented before us for an overall Systems Change.
The League of Creative Minds will continue to examine racial discrimination in the United States with the same tenacity as racism elsewhere in the world because Black Lives Matter. The Summer of 2019 every single delegate that came through the LCM summer program at Stanford spent a portion of their summer courses learning about human rights and the inequalities faced by the Black community. In the 2018-2019, Academic year the League traveled for the 3rd time to Cuba to study the nation of Cuba as a whole, with a focus on the Health, Education, and Government of the Cuban People. The Summer of 2017 the League conducted a field study in Israel and the Palestinian Territories including Hebron, Ram Allah, Bethlehem, Rawabi, as well as the Golan Heights, Jaffa and much more. The purpose of the field study to study water rights, border disputes, refugees, and settlements. In 2016, the League conducted a field study on the First Nations Peoples, and delegates spent a summer all over Canada. From Saskatoon to Yellowknife the storm of racism, hatred, and violence against the First Nations People was persistent and tore apart the foundation of many communities. The summer prior in 2015, a League delegation traveled to Sicily and Malta to study the Rights of Migrants. League delegates interviewed and noted the reoccurring stories by hundreds of refugees of severe mistreatment and discrimination. On the same field study delegates traveled to Cyprus for a historical example of division and hatred and to experience firsthand the longstanding UN peacekeeping mission.
In 2014, the League underwent a field study on Poverty in the United States. In this field study delegates studied urban and rural Black and White poverty, along with the study of the various educational, health, and professional shortcomings directed towards the Black community. In 2013 (in a pilot field study) to China, delegates traveled to the Uighur region of Urumqui and Xinjiang; a region where delegates could observe firsthand the early signs of oppression, systemic racism, and discrimination. The delegates retraced the ancient silk road and learned about the culture of the numerous minorities in China. In 2012, the League hosted a pilot field study to the Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo) to study how a nation rebuilds after a genocide that transpired out of racial hatred, discrimination, and violence. The delegates met in the various War Tribunals and were able to view evidence on a firsthand basis, and speak to those who had lived through the war and could share firsthand knowledge.
It is with renewed and steadfast pursuits that we continue with momentum shared worldwide, and by the greater Bay Area community, the pursuit of our original vision and why we continue to exist with such vigor, innovation, and high marks of academic excellence. The League of Creative Minds seeks (and has since its inception in 2009), to raise awareness amongst students about issues of broad influence that currently affect the peoples of the world, and to bring about social transformation by acting as catalysts to societal issues. As such, the League of Creative Minds will continue to support Black Lives Matter, and remains motivated to continue to pursue academic deliberation on Black Lives Matter and related topics. Our Summer 2020 delegates began the first debate on Police Reform at the Federal Level in early June 2020, and we introduced new classes: the Role of Race in Medicine, Three Strikes Law, School-to-Prison pipeline, Mental Illness, Brain Science and the Juvenile System, Facts vs. Opinions, Examining Racist Rhetoric, Education in Crisis and much more!
All humans today face unprecedented change in their future world. At LCM we believe that the changing landscape presents an opportunity to think about the creative human potential in a new and distinct way. It follows that we have been watching and listening to the input of our current League delegates, as they have created innovative opportunities and new ways of thinking for themselves. Delegates learn how to think through examining comparative systems of justice, diplomacy, humanities, geopolitics, philosophy, and respective context in history. Through this journey of social and intellectual growth taken by each delegate, an ethical, transformative, and socially nourishing environment continues to evolve. The foundational platform from which new endeavors and ideas become a reality begin with a delegate’s motivation to care, empathize, and obtain results that go on to act as catalysts of social transformation. The path to reach our greatest human potential requires an environment where creativity, imagination, and a high work ethic coincide. It is in this particular learning environment that League delegates navigate through to propel forward, and evolve as humans for common good.
Thank you to the League community for caring as much as you do.”