Nilanka Seneviratne, 2024 graduate

When I returned to South Carolina and was looking to make change locally, I gravitated to the Progressive Network, which I had joined before I left many years earlier. I started joining the monthly lunches, where I learned about Modjeska Simkins and the school named after her. 

When the Modjeska School application was released, Brett Bursey encouraged me to apply. As someone educated in SC public schools in the ’80s and ’90s, I knew that the history I learned was biased and incomplete, and I was hungry to learn what had been left unsaid.

Dr. Robert Greene II is an excellent professor who manages to go deep into some dark history, show how the information relates to the modern day, all while cracking some good jokes. (But I digress.)

I count myself lucky not just to attend but to be local and able to join in robust discussions after class. Having completed the course, I can say that attending the Modjeska School was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. Through those classes, I learned about SC’s outsized connections to major historical events, the deep history of those organizing for change within SC, and I made friends and comrades who I will work with locally.

Much of the status quo is rooted in years of oppression and struggle. We are not the first in this fight and we will not be the last. The path to this moment is littered with contestations between reactionary forces and those on the side of progress and change. 

Those of us who are called to take on the current challenge can learn from those who preceded us — while we bring new knowledge, strategies, and tactics to the movement. And the true special sauce is the relationships we build. It is these relationships that can sustain us during the hard times, celebrate with us during our victories, and strategize with us as we plan for change.

Whether you are seeking to better understand SC history, looking for colleagues with which to make good trouble, or searching for inspiration on how you can make change, the Modjeska School is a step in the right direction.

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We are sharing student testimonies about the Modjeska Simkins School ahead of the spring session, which begins March 1 and runs through the end of June. The application process opens in February.