Category: Anti-Discrimination
Talia Stol
For the past four years I have been a member of my high school's ERACISM
club. This club is dedicated to eliminating stereotypes and prejudice in our
community, and our goal is tolerance and diversity education through a variety
of programs planned and attended by members. As president this year, I have
organized programs including a guest speaker on activism, a South Hills teen
interfaith dialogue after Sept. 11, a movie event where we watched "Smoke
Signals" and discussed contemporary issues facing the Native American community,
a music program dealing with protest songs of the 20th century and most recently
a visit to the Zen-Buddhist Temple in Ambridge. In addition to ERACISM, since
September I have been teaching English as a Second Language to a class of
Sudanese refugees. Throughout high school, I have been involved in South Hills
Interfaith Ministries in various capacities, including acting as a delegate to a
teen interfaith program in Washington, D.C., and to the U.N. Millennium
Interfaith Summit in New York. I have also participated in SHIM's annual Martin
Luther King Jr observance for three years, and this year I was part of the Youth
Subcommittee that helped plan the SHIM Holocaust observance. Last year I also
founded a SHIM youth committee in order to organize a local interfaith
conference which was attended by over 7o South Hills teens and hosted religious
leaders representing the Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Mormon faiths
Finally, in 10th and 11th grade I was a participant in NCCJ's Teen Leadership
Council which consisted of a monthly seminar on different "isms" (racism,
ableism, homophobia, etc.).
Category: Student Rights
Olivia Tucci, Mari Dumbaugh, Annie Kushner, Julia McDowell and Laura
Romah
Last year, a lengthy contract dispute between the teachers and the school board
erupted in our school district of Mt. Lebanon. During this time, the
inaccessibility of teachers and the unwillingness of the school board to
compromise hurt students’ scholastic opportunities and grades. Disappointed with
the lack of student influence in our school district, we felt it necessary for
students to organize to protect our rights. Thus, Mari Dumbaugh, Annie Kushner,
Julia McDowell, Laura Romah, and I (Olivia Tucci) decided to create an
organization through which the voices of students on various issues could be
heard, called the Student Union. Through the Student Union, we have encouraged
many students to speak up at school board meetings concerning topics such as the
contract dispute, a "controversial" assembly presented by Dr. Patch Adams, and
foreign exchange trips. We have also held "Registration Days," during which
tables are set up in the cafeterias with voting registration cards and
information to promote students of age to register. Perhaps our most significant
contribution, however, is the Student/School Board Committee which we organized
and on which we currently serve. This committee consists of 15 juniors and
seniors who meet with the School Board several times a year to discuss issues
concerning the students and the school. This much-needed group acts as a liaison
between the students and the school board.
Category: Equity
Rebecca Kottler-Wein
My true passion has been my volunteer work with the children’s program
at
the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. During biweekly (and
oftentimes more) visits, I have had the privilege to get to know the
children living at the Shelter. Often called the “art therapy girl,” I come
heavily armed with art supplies and ideas for art projects. Currently, I’m
working on a 4x13 foot mural there titled “In the Garden of Tomorrow” with
the kids, with multimedia flowers, butterflies, and reflections of their
hopes, wishes, and dreams for the future. I collated their artwork into a
research project studying the impact of domestic violence on children and
presented my findings at my school to promote public awareness of the
effects of domestic violence on children, utilizing the childrens’ drawings
as projective tools. I view education as the only way to break the cycle of
violence against women and address the underlying socioeconomic, gender, and
cultural issues that perpetuate violence.
Volunteering at the American Civil Liberties has had a significant impact
on the way I view politics. I have learned that authority does not always
signify what’s constitutionally right, and our civil liberties need to be
protected now more than ever. I volunteer at the ACLU three days a week as
administrative support. I have also participated in canvassing, and
defending the rights of Pittsburgh teen artists during a hearing for the
“Mook Bill”; providing testimony at a televised City Council meeting,
speaking out against a bill that would have prohibited minors from buying
and carrying art supplies without a legal guardian present. Currently, this
bill has been tabled.
Through an organization called Building New Hope, I participate in a fair
trade coffee project, roasting and bagging Nicaraguan shade grown coffee.
The proceeds assist Nicaraguan farmers in marketing their crops and setting
up more effective irrigation systems. I have also lent administrative
support with a similar organization, Global Connections and their
publication, the Pittsburgh Area International Resource Directory (PAIRD).
These two organizations have led me to become interested in global affairs.
This upcoming summer I am planning to go to Ghana for 5 weeks (on a merit
scholarship from the American Field Service) to work in an orphanage there.
I have also volunteered with other projects including: presidential
campaign (canvassing and telephone solicitations for Al Gore), making
Christmas boxes for underprivileged children in third world countries,
serving dinner to the homeless on Christmas and other days, participating in
Interact Club activities (a high school division of the Rotary Club), and
attending youth conferences (ex: Youth Summit) that promote youth voice and
cultural respect.
Ben Phelps-Rohrs
Over the past two years, I have participated in many activist events. I attended
the Solidarity summer school, a weeklong intensive on communism and organizing
local activist groups this summer. I put the knowledge I gained to good use in
the past year by helping to organize an anti-racist action hip-hop show and
becoming co-president of my school’s Amnesty International club (we are
currently trying to convince the cafeteria to stop selling environmentally
irresponsible coffee picked by workers living below the poverty line). Last
year, I chartered a social justice club, “Culture Shock”, that worked with the
East End Cooperative Ministries to bring together people from two radically
different walks of life – the white upper-class kids of Winchester Thurston and
the racially diverse, impoverished people that used EECM’s services. I also
organized for the local and national elections in 2000, working with Green Party
candidates Ralph Nader and Curt Larson.
Category: Gender Orientation
Strauss
I started as an activist in elementary school, going
to the principal to complain about the lack of women
and people of color in our history textbooks. In
middle school I created data charts comparing the
number of times boys were called on and their
proportion of the class to the same for girls. I
fought a sexist and heterosexist event at my middle
school called Hush Day, a day during which girl's
voices were silenced. Yet it took
me until high school to fight for my own rights to be
heard and respected.
I fought for all of 10th grade to start a Gay-Straight
Alliance (GSA) at my school, or at least to have the
school do something to address the harassment I was
receiving as someone who broke perceived gender norms.
Eventually, my friend Jason and I were permitted to
start Gender Issues, the first high-school GSA in
Western Pennsylvania. Since then, I've met
consistently with the Head of School to determine ways
to make our school a safer and more respectful place
for all students, presented to the entire Shady Side
Academy (SSA) Senior School faculty on lgbt issues,
led Gender Workshops both at Shady Side and around the
country, and organized multiple school-wide events to
draw attention to lgbt and feminist issues.
I serve as the youngest member of the Board of
Directors of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education
Network (GLSEN) Pittsburgh chapter, where I co-chair
the Youth Empowerment Committee and lead the
Pittsburgh Community GSA. The Community GSA is a
youth-run organization that networks area GSAs,
provides support to students and faculty without GSAs
at their schools, and helps students and faculty to
start their own GSAs. I also work with the national
GLSEN organization, serving as the co-chair for their
National Student Leadership Team, working to make
GLSEN more youth-inclusive.
Category: Peace
Morgan Corr
I am relatively new to the activist world, but I have endeavored to be
as alert a citizen as possible for most of my life. I am active in my school
community with such programs as the Diversity Council, which is made up of
students from ranging backgrounds and the Diversity Alliance, which is a network
in my high school (North Hills High School) of all the different "diversity"
groups including Nonconformists, Gay-Straight Student Alliance, the Diversity
Council, etc. Through these two related groups I was given the opportunity to
speak in the STOP Violence Conference which was a gathering of different high
school students on different topic ranging from discrimination and dating
violence to bomb threats and drugs & alcohol. The Diversity Alliance also has
received a grant from the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ)
to promote the awareness of students and faculty at our school on issues such as
sexuality, race sensitivity, religious difference, etc.
I am a member of the Teen Leadership Council (TLC), which is part of the NCCJ.
The TLC convenes representatives from many local high schools once a month to
participate in workshops on different issues. They bring in experts on the topic
of the month to assist in the training and activities of the workshop and it is
always an interesting and educational experience.
I also recently participated in a youth activist training program sponsored by
the Alliance for Progressive Action to teach youth's how to best get their
campaigns off the ground.
Finally, I am in the early stages of planning a peace rally to be held in the
Pittsburgh area which will be youth oriented. I am working with different
community members on this project, including some Thomas Merton Center staff.
Category: Environment
Claire Schoyer
Well, I guess it started with stuffing flyers for my mother when she
was
with the Peace Institute, but that maybe to thorough. I am CO-President of
my
high school's (CAPA) Sierra club, Amnesty International, and ACLU.
With the Sierra Club I have been working with The National Forest
Restoration and Protection Act and with the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge.
I have been working on letter writing campaigns and have lobbied for both
in
Washington, with a group I organized from my school. We attended The
Sierra
student Coalition's (SCC) annual Public lands Action Summit and have I
been
trying to keep them involved. I have applied for Pennsylvania State Coordi
nator for the SCC. I have been trying to get my chapter up to Allegheny
National forest and have been involved with the Allegheny Defense Project,
which is a group trying to save Pennsylvania's only national forest. I
have
also been organizing an action against the staples cooperation.
With Amnesty, I have been tabling and organizing letter writing
campaigns. I helped organize an all school assembly to inform the whole
student body about the organization. I have been working a lot lately with
the just earth campaign, which ties human rights to environmental rights.
Also, my first lobbying trip was for The Human Rights Information Act and
Amnesty really is where I began my involvement.
With the ACLU I have not done much, but write letters and help start
the
chapter. I am going to a conference soon and hope to get involved and
really
start more action.
Also my Long term Project (school thing) is to educate some St. Bede
School children and to help them organize an event at their school.
Also just things like phone calls and bake sales and litter pickups
(attempting) and volunteering people to cook at the East End Corporative
Ministry. I think little things are good. I am trying to start a Students
for a free Tibet and hope to help my mother more with Peacelinks.
I try to Educate. I hope that was not too much or too little it is
just the important stuff.
Category: Hunger and Homelessness
Rebecca Meiksin
Because my mother is extremely involved in politics and activism, I grew
up thinking that it was completely normal to attend gay rights and anti-war
marches in Washington, DC every few years. So I naturally became involved in
activism during high school. In 9th grade I joined the Student Hunger Action
Coalition at Taylor Allderdice High School and went on my first lobbying trip to
DC. We lobbied for the increased funding for the WIC program. In 11th grade, we
lobbied for debt forgiveness for developing countries and for increased access
to food stamps for immigrants. Also in 11th grade I asked two of my friends to
start a Gay/Straight alliance with me at Taylor Allderdice. We coordinated the
involvement in the National Day of Silence Project. Also, this last year, I
learned of the Pittsburgh Public School Board’s proposed exclusive contract with
the Pepsi company. As I believe that contract would have sold out the students
and sent mixed messages about the purpose of public schools, I spoke against
this contract at a school board meeting.
Anand Krishnaswamy
My personal experience with social activism has been mainly through Just
Harvest and my school’s Interact Club. Through Interact, I have rejuvenated the
“homeless tours” a program that only my school participates in. I have been
involved with Amnesty International’s “Write a thon” and “Stop the Torture”
campaigns. I’ve also been involved with Red Cross and Brother’s Brother.
Probably the biggest influence on my activism has been my leadership role
through Just Harvest’s Student Hunger Action. I’ve attended numerous lobbying
trips to DC, and have taken a leadership role by addressing those PA
Representatives that have a hard line policy dealing with social issues such as
welfare reform, TANF, African debt relief and food stamps.
Category: Community Service – CCHRIST members
Daniel Dzombak
I am a student at Central Catholic High School and a member of Central
Catholic Human Rights Initiative for Societal Transformation (CCHRIST). We are
part of Amnesty International, in which we cooperate with them in petition
drives and urgent actions. Urgent actions are human rights emergencies that are
very urgent. For these, we write letters to whomever it pertains to, usually
government officials. Also, for CCHRIST I am one of the anchors on a weekly
update program on Central’s TV morning announcements. I am on about once every 2
months. I am also a member of Amnesty’s FAST network, which is if there is a
life-threatening human rights emergency I am sent an e-mail. I put my name on it
and send it to the proper authorities.
Severin Russo
I am also a member of CCHRIST. I also attended the United Nations
Conference on human rights in Philadelphia. We discussed how we could help the
fight for human rights. Aside from that, I write letters to leaders of foreign
countries to get individuals that are unfairly imprisoned out of prison.
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