Wilson High School is nestled atop the Ascot Hills with a view of both of its realities: an urban landscape of downtown Los Angeles and the indigenous hills of northeast Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Mountains as their background. It is a public high school on a traditional September to June schedule with a "four by four block schedule." Wilson has recently reorganized into small learning communities with contiguous spaces.

Wilson students primarily come from El Sereno and City Terrace, two communities with a strong Latino presence. Its residents, businesses and public art are lively examples of rich cultural expressions. Wilson is 93 percent Latino in student population; it also has a 3.9 percent Asian population and 1.6 percent African American student population (Data Quest, 2009). The majority of our students come from low-income households. 75 percent of our students are on free and reduced lunch (California Educational Opportunity Report, 2010).

Wilson High School faces many obstacles, but it is also a place where many people strive to improve the quality of students' lives. There is continual staff development, but our major obstacle is limited resources. There are various school-wide initiatives on campus, such as small learning communities and an International Baccalaureate application and review process, but very few teacher-initiated, let alone student-initiated school projects. There are very few resources allocated for teacher and student initiatives and most of these projects involve funding from outside entities such as universities and other organizations. With our project, we want to encourage and support participatory research and go beyond the confines of just a few classrooms. We want to expand it out to our school community.