In this episode, I'm honored to have the good brother Justis Lopez on the podcast. In our conversation, he shares his personal journey in education, the inspiration behind the founding of his company, Just Experience, the evolution of hip-hop pedagogy in K-12 education, and the reason why "happyvism" is the key for centering youth voice and creating liberatory spaces within our education system. To learn more about Justis' work, you can visit the Just Experience website at justexperienceus.com or the Project Happyvism website at projecthappyvism.com. You can also follow him on Instagram (@social_justis) and Facebook!
BIO: Justis Lopez is an educator, consultant, activist, youth advocate, and a proud native of Manchester, CT. A first-generation college student, Lopez enrolled at the University of Connecticut through the TRIO program and graduated with a Master's Degree in Curriculum & Instruction. Upon graduating from the University of Connecticut, Lopez returned to his alma mater, Manchester High School, as a social studies teacher for a few years before moving to New York to work as a high school Government & Politics teacher and taught hip-hop & civics classes in the South Bronx, an experience that he says transformed him.
He then continued work at a consulting startup he began during his time at UConn, Just Experience LLC, a multiplatform company that seeks to create spaces of joy to entertain and empower others. His consulting work extends to several higher education institutions and K-12 schools, along with the Council for Opportunity in Education, where he had previously served as the Director of Alumni Relations. Most recently, Lopez, along with his business partner Ryan Parker, launched Project Happyvism, which is a project centered on choosing joy and self-love as a radical form of activism. Aside from the Project Happyvism, Lopez currently serves as an adjunct professor of Education at Stephen F. Austin State University and plans to return to school to pursue a Master's Degree in Educational Entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania.
