Interactive field trip serves as Black History Month finale for Intrinsic Schools students

CHICAGO (WLS) -- One local school takes all of its students on a big field trip in honor of Black History Month.

The students receive interactive lessons about African American history and culture.

All 1,000 Intrinsic Schools students partake in the field trip, which serves as a finale for the month.

With topics such as "A history of hip-hop" at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, the lessons feel relevant for 8th graders.

Chicago Dance Crash teaches, through movement, the influence of African drums and Egyptian images leading to funk, tut, break dance and hip-hop.

A Soul Train line highlights some of the students and teachers moves.

"Especially with hip hop, I didn't know where it was derived from, so that was really cool," said Kyla Jimenez, Intrinsic 8th grader.

Other cultural themes included spoken word from the Poetry Center of Chicago, emphasizing everyone's story matters.

This wasn't the only location students went to. Seven places around the city helped them get a better understanding of African American history and some of the issues these teens are currently facing.

Student visited the Black Emsemble Theatre, Gallery Guichard, and also visited the west side for some history of soul food. For Intrinsic students, who are mostly Latino, the experience was appreciated.

"We are all minorities, we all have struggles. If we can have a better understanding of other cultures that are going through the same thing, we can maybe make some decisions that can help change the world," said Ashley Okonta-Mathews, Intrinsic Schools teacher.

Last year, Intrinsic did a school wide celebration of Latino Heritage. The events were well-received by students, parents and teachers, so they organized Wednesday's school-wide field trip for Black History Month.