Activism

Ever since I was a small child, I have been passionate about the issues that are facing the world. When I was 10, I wrote a petition for a two-year moratorium against the use of the death penalty here in Pennsylvania. The petition was adopted by Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Many people in the Meeting community and in my neighborhood circulated the petition and gathered signatures. The petition went to the Pennsylvania Governor's office.

Three years later, I noticed that a heavily-used mailbox had been removed from a busy corner in my neighborhood. Again, I wrote a petition to get the mailbox restored, and with the help of family and friends, I gathered over 250 signatures. A small rally was held at my local post office when I delivered the petition to an assistant to the manager. After a subsequent meeting and many follow-up phone calls, the mailbox was reinstalled. Several months later, an article about this campaign was published in the Philadelphia Inquirer's Sunday Magazine. Even today, as I walk around my neighborhood, people come up to me and thank me for “getting the mailbox back.”

As I grew older and my schoolwork-load intensified, I found less time for activism. When I was in middle school, I wrote articles about political events and posted them on this website. I also got involved in the Middle School Friends program of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. When I entered high school, I moved to the Young Friends program. In 2006, I took a leadership position in Young Friends when I became a Permanent Nurturer. I servde in that capacity until August of 2009. At the 2007 Friends General Conference Gathering in River Falls, WI, I was one of the Clerks (leaders) of the High School Program.

In the summer of 2008, the second Young Peoples Empowerment Convergence (YPEC) was held in West Philadelphia. I attended the first YPEC in 2007 and helped to plan the second. The goal of these gatherings is to demonstrate the significance of youth in our society and to expose young people’s untapped potential to effect positive change. After the first YPEC, I wrote an article about the workshops and activities that were held. My article was published in the October 2007 issue of Friends Journal, a national Quaker magazine that has a readership of 25,000. I also administered YPEC's website for two years.

Attending the Woolman Semester during the second half of my senior year of high school heightened my social awareness. As I continue to live my life, I will use my knowledge in further quests to make the world a better place for all.