Rise Up for Students is a blog founded by Matt Halvorson in 2016 to advocate for a better life for all kids and to shed light on issues of racial and social injustice in our schools in Seattle and across Washington State. In addition to frequently tackling local education issues through a lens of racial equity and radical empthy, Matt has pushed generally for bolder, equity-minded decision-making from leaders, and for all of us to examine our role in the system.

Beginning in 2018, Matt began working with Marcus Harden to produce the annual Black History Today series in honor of Black History Month. The series rolls out a new essay every day each February, paying tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond by recognizing the unsung heroes in our midst. It’s nice.

Contributors to the Rise Up for Students blog over the years have included such local luminaries as Stephan Blanford, Marcus Harden, Amanda Williams, Erin Jones and Marcus Harrison Green.

The blog spent 2023 on hiatus. Matt hopes he speaks for everyone when he says we remain committed to fighting systemic oppression in all its interconnected forms. Education is a branch on the tree of inequity.

Rise Up for Students contributors

You can also find Rise Up For Students on Facebook, on Twitter @RiseUpKids, and on Instagram @RiseUpForStudents. But honestly, nobody really checks them right now.

Email Matt, if you’d like: matt.a.halvorson@gmail.com

We acknowledge that we live on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples. We give life to that acknowledgment through a commitment to ongoing learning, brave solidarity and intentional decolonization.