GRASSROOTSYOUTH

BY YOUNG PEOPLE FOR

YOUNG PEOPLE

A p r i l 20 18: I ssu e 1

HOW A MOVEMENT WAS BORN

ON AN AIRPLANE

I was sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Of every injustice I saw left and right, everyday on the news. I felt hopeless, but it was also at my lowest point that I realized how much power I truly hold and that it goes beyond just voting.

I was on my flight back to Dallas, TX from Memphis, TN after attending the Bridge Builders National Youth Action Summit, where I had the opportunity to meet hundreds of youth organizers from around the country who all felt the same way I did. They were all taking a stand from the south-side of Chicago and the neighborhoods of New York all the way to Oakland, California and Denver, Colorado. I was inspired. It was on that flight back home that I realized that every young person deserves to feel how I feel. To know that their voice can make a difference in their communities.

This is when GrassrootsYouth was born.

GRASSROOTSYOUTH WRITTEN BY: YOLIAN OGBU

Throughout my years of adolescence, fellow students would tell me that they want to be more involved, that they are passionate about certain issues, but they just don?t know where to start and how to go beyond a simple retweet on twitter. So I spent many sleepless nights formulating a mission statement, a structured program for the youth, and different initiatives that I felt as though my peers would like to be apart of nfjoabfjaobfuaobfudaob

Starting with the global representatives program, we would have interested students age 14 and above fill out an application and once they are accepted, they are placed into a cohort of fellow #changemakers in training where they participate in our online discussions platform, our monthly video conferences and publication where representatives convene to talk about how they can bring awareness to certain issues in their community, share ideas for creating events on their college campus or high school and have their stories or opinions on different issues published. ahsakjdhusakdbsadbsakbdjsak

As all of this started to come together, I realized that this organization may actually have some impact. Of course I had my doubts like, ?Would anyone really take this seriously? Why would anyone want to follow an

18 year old that is wanting to create a non-profit organization?? But it turns out, that a lot of people would. I started to talk to classmates and other students about my idea and they were completely on board. I remember a student in particular said ?This is something I?ve been

waiting for?. This just further solidified the fact that the youth are

hungry to make change and to have their voice heard.

This organization is only just starting to take off but it has so much potential and so many across the country have their faith put in this organization which is mind-blowing for an 18 year old college student like me.njclndslndclsncbkabcjakbcdakjbcakbcjdakfgueakfgnfkalfhueaml.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we?ve been waiting for.

We are the change that we seek.

Recently, I had the opportunity to participate in an Immigration round-table where I got to meet a variety of immigrants. I had the good fortune to meet a Syrian woman , who had been in America for ten years and in the last stretch of her American citizenship process. She was there with her husband, who was already a citizen, and she was incredibly excited and hopeful to become an American citizen. Her face was bright and cheerful as she talked about how she had been waiting for the interview for very long, and she said that she had learned all of the possible 100 questions and answers that she could get asked on the upcoming test, including the questions with more than 10

answers that only required you to know one or two

It all seemed well and good, and I found myself radiating with excitement for her. However, there was just one problem; she missed her family. She missed her family dearly and hadn?t seen them in forever, and although the law said that she could travel outside of the United States for less than six months as a permanent resident, because of the travel ban put in place she was scared she would not be allowed to come back to the United States if she traveled to Syria. She and her husband had a friend who had been an American citizen for more than forty years, and had been stuck in Syria for one year and a half when traveling after the travel ban had been put in place. This woman was unlike anyone I had ever met before: her husband and her had previously spent roughly 2 years in Jordan helping Syrian refugees, and despite her tribulations, was

bright and cheerful.

I'M GOING TO CHANGE THE

WORLD FOR HER AND PEOPLE LIKE HER

As the couple was getting up to leave, the woman turned to me and took both my hands in hers. I will never forget the way she clasped my hands, looked me in the eyes, and asked me to pray for her because she missed her family so much.

I want to be a part of the policy-making process when I grow up. Everytime I think about being a politician and all the new revolutionary new policies I will implement, I think about her and people like her, and how I?m

going to do more than just pray for her. I?m going to change the world for her and people like her.

Diversity is often times treated as a buzzword synonymous with companies and colleges hiring or offering admission to people of color for the sake of good PR. Many of my white peers have scorned the idea of diversity being a factor in admissions or job offers because they believe that everyone ought to be judged by their character and personal worth, not their skin. This is true to some extent, but what many people forget is that diversity of race oftentimes lends itself to diversity of thought, which enriches and brings desperately needed new perspective to an environment.

It is no secret that different races have a different backgrounds, stories, and perspectives, and when the theory of colorblindness is championed - as it is among many people on all sides of the political spectrum -

we ignore and squash out minority voices that are paramount to our advancement as a society.

A prominent example was given to me by my mentor, an eminent immigration lawyer and political advocate. She told me the story of a man in North Texas who came from a low socioeconomic background. Frustrated and tired of the needs of his community not being fulfilled, he decided to run for city council. When he won he started to implement policies beneficial to the lower socioeconomic class that had long been ignored, such as a much needed public transportation system, paramount for those in a lower socioeconomic class to get to work - as many of them don?t have access to cars. Through his story, there is a valuable lesson to be learned about listening to those most suppressed and having a diverse group of voices contributing to our

society.

GRASSROOTSYOUTHWRITTEN BY:HILLARY SHAH

The issue of diversity will always be one fraught with over-simplified versions of the truth,

misunderstanding, and frustration. The main point of diversity, however, needs to be kept in mind when

examining the issue: sometimes we need to be quiet, step back, and let minorities finally have the chance to

speak up.