Daisja Johnson is a junior at Greater Johnstown High School. She said even though her school is multicultural, she still sees prejudice among her peers.

“When we go to away football games and people will be wearing confederate flags or people will be calling us names. It does hurt us a lot,” said Daisja Johnson, a junior at Greater Johnstown High School.

Johnson attended the 2017 NAACP Inclusion and Diversity Summit Tuesday, to learn how to connect with different groups of people.

The NAACP Johnstown Branch hosted the event with Saint Francis University. They want to teach students about cultural and economic diversity before they go out into the world.

“Whether it’s work, college, trade school, whatever it may be. You’re going to soon be out among people who aren’t like you. And the quicker you learn, the more deeply you learn to reach out and value people for who they are,” said Tim Tuinstra, the NAACP Johnstown Branch Education Chair.

Members of the NAACP said they hope students learn to not just tolerate each other, but embrace each other despite their differences.

“Tolerance is good, but it’s limiting. You reach beyond tolerance and try to say, what is different? I like that about you. I want to get to know how you see things, what your background is so we can work and find areas we didn’t expect to find in common,” said Tuinstra.

Johnson said meeting other students at the summit helped break down some barriers.

“When you get to see things from other people’s point of views it helps a lot. To educate yourself about things you normally wouldn’t know about other people,” Johnson said.

Summit organizers hope students will take what they learn and share it with their peers, whether it’s in the halls or outside the classroom.