On Monday May 20th, hordes of parents lined up outside of the Oakland Tech Girls Gym waiting to gain admission into one of the most anticipated events of the season: the Taking Action Project Gala.
Inside, hundreds of students presented on issues such as student mental health, OUSD student homelessness, junk food intake, period poverty, and air conditioning and heating systems for Oakland Tech classrooms. Projects explored different ways of taking action, with some groups proposing fundraisers and others writing OUSD policy proposals.
The Taking Action Project, better known as the TAP project, is something with which almost every Oakland Tech student is familiar. The project challenges groups of freshmen students to make a plan to solve an issue in their community. Some of the lasting changes include the garden on upper campus, the mural in Ms. Lopez’s room, and even our gender neutral bathrooms.
But not every class has had the same experience with the TAP project. Throughout the years, teachers have made adjustments to it to give it more value to students.
“It’s the action part that we’ve played the most with over the years,” remembered Ms. Vaughn, a Sol House Ethnic Studies teacher who has taught at Oakland Tech for six years.
For the classes of 2025 and 2026, Ethnic Studies educators focused on teaching about the “Circle of Control,” in other words, creating plans that are achievable within the time and resource constraints that the project necessitates. But in the past two years, the project has shifted to have the TAP Gala be the main focus of the project. This year, for the first time, the Gala is a night for students to present their plan to the community without time and resource restraints. This gives students the freedom to imagine a plan that would make an impactful difference.
“Our true dream over time is to have more community members or city council members even come, or major organizations with money to come,” Ms. Vaughn told me. “These things could genuinely make a difference.”
Not only does the project create change for the community, but it also has benefits for the students.
“Because of the open-ended nature of the project, it’s really the only time in 9th grade where students have the genuine freedom to research something that really interests them and is relevant to their lives,” Ms. Vaughn said.
The project also is an introduction to activism and shows students what it takes to make real change in the world.
“You learn a lot about students who need help,” reflected Arianna, a student who worked on a project about OUSD student homelessness.
For many an Oakland Tech student, the TAP project acts as a basis for future assignments, whether it be Capstone, Mr. Senn’s Major Project, or something else entirely.
Perhaps more importantly, the project ties us together – it is a shared experience among Tech students. Even though the project has developed over the years, the premise of taking part in activism has remained the same, providing a legacy that all Tech alums can be proud to carry with them wherever they end up going.