“We took that no and said, ‘alright, that door closed, and we’ll find a window that opens,’ and you’re now sitting into what that became,” Northern Kentucky Inclusive Students In Education co-founder Elise Carter said.
The Northern Kentucky Inclusive Students In Education, also known as NISE, is a nonprofit educational initiative specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was incorporated in August 2021 after its founders, Carter and Trinity Walsh, were denied by Fort Thomas Schools District to start a program in the district.
Carter is a business teacher by trade, and Walsh is a guidance counselor.
“We worked at Highland High School together,” Carter said. “I tried as a teacher to always make safe spaces for students or faculty or friends to come to me and ask questions, whether it be Black and brown or just about marginalized people in general. So, we would eat lunch and have conversations about her experiences with her son and my experiences with my son. And then it grew into students starting to ask questions, and I would go to her like, you’ll not believe what so and so just asked me.”
Carter said the idea of starting a program like NISE was there, but they didn’t have the time to implement it. Then COVID-19 and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor happened, and the pair got to work.
To start a new class in Kentucky, you have to go before the Site-Based Decision-Making Council. Carter said that even though all classes don’t go through the council, they knew their class topic could be seen as controversial and wanted to go through all of the correct protocols.
“The population of Fort Thomas has changed,” Carter said. “It’s not just, you know, Christian cis males. We have families that have transgender children or Black and brown children, whether that be natural or adoption or whatever it might be, so recognizing that our community was changing, the superintendent wanted to start conversations to support those students in the classroom.”
During this time, Carter said the controversy around Critical Race Theory, commonly known as CRT, was being discussed, especially whether it belonged in a classroom.
“So even though we had come out and stated that we weren’t doing anything with that, it was just too much in the media that educators are teaching CRT,” Carter said.
By May 2021, when the next Site-Based Decision-Making Council meeting was held, Carter said 200 people were there both for and against their class. The board of education and Site-Based Decision-Making Council ultimately decided not to proceed with Carter and Walsh’s class idea.
“We were devastated,” Carter said. “I think by June, after we had cried, got over all those emotions, said, ‘Well, what’s next? What can we do?’ And so, somehow, I don’t know if it was her, myself, or someone else whispering in our ears, we were like, let’s start a nonprofit.”
The organization’s goals include the development of critical thinking, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, as well as the ability to apply and utilize those skills in diverse academic and non-academic situations.
NISE started with about 11 students and has grown to 15-20. The organization puts all its money back into its operations, and Carter and Walsh do not take salaries. NISE currently serves grades 10-12 but is planning to start serving 9-12 and college students.
NISE works with students across the Greater Cincinnati area and finds their students mainly through word of mouth.
“Our group demonstrates to the community that embracing your true self and standing as an ally to underrepresented individuals is vital for collective growth and progress,” said NISE Community Outreach Coordinator Pam Schultz. “We believe that authenticity and support for diversity are the cornerstones of a thriving, inclusive society. Elise and Trinity founded NISE after being told that inclusivity and social awareness didn’t matter. Determined to prove otherwise, they set out to show the community that embracing diversity and fostering social consciousness are not only important but crucial for genuine growth and success.”
Carter said the biggest glaring need for her to create NISE was the growth of Black and brown kids in the Fort Thomas Independent School District as well as those who are identifying as LGBTQ plus.
“For a lot of our students—I still am the only Black educator in our district—and for many, the only Black person they’ve ever had a conversation with,” Carter said. “And so, their opinions or stereotypes or biases are formed from what they either hear from family members that can be biased, or they’re seeing what’s on TV, and I always joke like, I don’t judge white people based off Jersey Shore, you can’t judge me based on what you see on BET.”
She also said they wanted to create a safe space for kids, recognizing that they are not heterosexual and exploring what that looks like, or they have identified themselves as something else and have a fear of coming out.
Carter said NISE is also welcoming to all religions and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Walsh said that as a counselor, she would have kids coming back from their first year of college and tell her they were in classes with people who didn’t look like them and didn’t know how to talk to them.
“They would say, ‘I don’t know how to have a conversation,’ and I was like, well, they’re a person. Just talk to them, and they’re like, I don’t know, that makes me nervous,” Walsh said. “So, lots of kids coming back saying, we live in this wonderful community, but it’s very, very homogeneous and so they weren’t able to see and understand that they could have conversations with other people and not be offensive. They felt like they were going to be offensive. So, I think that was another thing that that kept resonating with me.”
Walsh now works for the Council on Postsecondary Education, which is based in Frankfort. She said she was recently on a call about what current students want at universities.
“One of the things that they (colleges) have found over the last couple of years that kids are asking them for is what organizations do you have on your campus where I can get involved and learn more about other people and give back. If they don’t have a good answer, they choose a different university. They’re looking for outlets to experience other things and to make connections with other people.”
Walsh said NISE is giving high school students that experience, which they can then apply for college.
The program at NISE starts with intersectionality, which helps the students learn more about who they are. They also talk about understanding social constructs and the history of race. They try to hit on all LGBTQ-plus groups and spend time with the Holocaust and Humanity Center.
NISE also tries to bring in guest speakers, such as a transgender man and a mental health expert.
“We recognize that our voice is not the end all be all,” Carter said.
Because of their work through NISE, Carter and Walsh were recently nominated for the Holocaust & Humanity Center’s Upstander Award.
According to the Holocaust & Humanity Center’s website, “Upstanders are people who stand up for themselves and others. They harness their character strengths to meet their moment and pursue justice, both great and small, inspiring others to do the same.”
Out of 100s of applications, they were among the top 24 finalists. Though they did not win, Carter said that being recognized and included in the class of people who are doing great things around Greater Cincinnati is the reward.
