Thursday, October 1, 2026
High school students from across Long Island gathered at Hofstra University for ERASE Racism’s 2026 Long Island Leaders of Tomorrow Conference, a daylong event focused on leadership, dialogue and social change.
ERASE Racism, a Long Island-based civil rights organization, hosted the conference as part of its broader mission to address structural racism, particularly in public education and housing.
The conference brought together students from Nassau and Suffolk counties on March 18 to take part in interactive workshops and discussions aimed at building connections across school districts and communities. Students from more than a dozen districts — including Baldwin, Bellmore-Merrick, Glen Cove, Hewlett-Woodmere, Long Beach, Malverne and Valley Stream — took part. Organizers said the goal was to equip students with practical tools they could bring back to their schools and communities.
“Long Island is the 10th most segregated metro region, even according to the 2020 census,” Nicole Grennan, program associate for ERASE Racism, said. “We have this long history of structural racism even in the form of racial covenants and red-lining that was happening in the region. As a result, our schools are very segregated.”
Participants engaged in sessions designed to strengthen leadership skills while exploring issues related to race, equity and opportunity. The program emphasized collaboration among students from diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, encouraging them to share experiences and develop strategies for creating more inclusive school environments.
“It was really important to us, as a civil rights organization, to connect students across their racially and socioeconomically segregated lines,” Grennan said. “We believe it’s important that students interact with students who don’t look like them and have an understanding of what’s going on in Long Island and their surrounding communities.”
By connecting young people from different regions of Long Island, the event aimed to foster understanding and empower a new generation of leaders committed to equity and civic engagement.
“Part of the reason why I wanted to bring our students here is because I have a social justice lens, and I wanted the students to not only hear the language, but see what’s going on in neighboring communities so they can collaborate together,” Betyne Farrell, a school psychologist at Baldwin High School, said.
Anissah Brown, a member of ERASE Racism and a junior at Calhoun High School in Merrick, said it was inspiring for her to attend, and to both educate and learn from her peers. “I get to inspire others to be more involved in their community, and attack racism at hand when they see it,” Brown said.
She said that coming into the conference, she expected unity and knowledge. “What I didn’t expect was the amount of ignorance that is still among my peers today,” she added. “A lot of stuff that people don’t know, stuff that people brush off as normal, and a lot of normalization of racial slurs and racism in general in their schools.”
Long Beach High’s dean of students, Phil Bruno, said he has noticed that, globally, those of the same religions and races have tension within their own communities.
“Long Beach itself is a very mixed community, and we represent a lot of different parts of the world,” Bruno said. “We’re trying to give a voice to these young people so that they feel comfortable to have these conversations with people in public, and build that type of character in our children.”
