Straight From the Go founder takes her message to Mizzou

When Raven Smith was a freshman at Morgan Park High School in Chicago, she liked going to football games. Then one day the sound of gunshots rang out into the crowd. “It was just a stampede. People were getting hurt because they were getting run over,” she says. During her senior year, she traveled to Detroit for a basketball game, and a group of boys asked her about her hometown. “I told them I was from Chicago, and their response was ‘Oh, like Chiraq?’” she says, referring to a nickname the city has earned because of its crime rate. “I thought, ‘Why couldn’t they ask me about Navy Pier or something?’ ”

These interactions left Smith, now a Mizzou freshman, with a feeling of hopelessness. Born and raised in Chicago, she grew up loving the city and all it offers. She hated that it had become known for gun violence, so in December 2015 she founded Straight From the Go (SFTG), an organization that showcases what is good about Chicago and supports those affected by the bad. The word “go” in Straight From the Go comes from the last two letters in Chicago.

The story first appeared in the Mizzou News click here to read full story.