It’s 6:30 p.m. on a Sunday. While most teenagers are watching TV or scurrying to finish a last-minute assignment, 15 teens are out doing something different. They’re fighting to end racism.
“Cultural Leadership has been the best thing that ever happened to me,” 18-year-old Tyjuan Morrow, from Beaumont High School, said. “I’ve learned how to be a change agent, how to notice injustice and fight against it, and how to network.”
Cultural Leadership is an intensive, yearlong program that brings black and Jewish teens together to learn about their respective cultures and to discuss contemporary issues facing their communities. To the core, these teens represent a fresh generation of change agents, problem solvers and risk takers.
“We need someone who is passionate about it and knows how to go about creating change in the right way,” 16-year-old Anna Dardick said.
The program includes monthly meetings, weekend retreats and a summer trip to cities of civil rights and social justice significance. Students meet the movers and shakers of the Human Rights Movement and are encouraged to continue their legacies.
“I refer back to a quote by Mahatmas Gandhi: ‘Be the change that you want to see in the world,’” said Ebony Moore, from Pattonville High School.
Cultural Leadership creator Karen Kalish has produced similar programs in several cities, including Washington, D.C. She was eager to bring the idea to St. Louis, a community that desperately needs racial healing and greater understanding.
“We need a new generation of kids who will see a problem, grab an ally or two or three, roll up their sleeves and get to work,” Kalish said. “Our kids are going to be the ones to bring about the change.”
Kalish’s kids are doing just that. While they might look like normal teenagers, the intelligent and outgoing bunch – made up of black and Jewish kids – are making a hard-felt impact on their communities.
Take, for example, Anna Dardick, from Parkway Central High School, who shows documentaries at her school to raise awareness and money for social causes. Last year, she raised nearly $500 for a campaign against child soldiers in Uganda.
“Before I joined Cultural Leadership, I wasn’t really receptive to the issues of today,” Anna said. “Now, I go online and seek out issues and what I can do to help.”
Cydney Ross started the first-ever diversity club at her high school, Villa Duchesne, which is less than one percent black. Cydney fought for nearly three months to get the program implemented. It now has over 80 members.
CeCe Campbell also partnered with white students at her all-girls Catholic school, Nerinx Hall, to start a diversity club.
Or how about Tyjuan Morrow, who attends an inner-city public school, and Richie Gallant, from Whitfield School, a private school in Creve Coeur. The two students joined forces to develop a peer-to-peer tutoring program to acquaint white county kids with black inner-city kids.
“It’s about bringing together the black community with the white community and giving kids with lower-economic backgrounds something to aspire to and opening the eyes of the disparities within the whole city,” Richie said.
LaParis Hawkins, 17, is pushing to get an African-American studies course at her high school, Hazelwood East. LaParis, who plans to study journalism at Mizzou, recently wrote a story for her school newspaper on the n-word.
And then there’s Alyssa Hadzima, a once shy teenager at Parkway North High School who is bringing about change by befriending students who are new to her school.
Cultural Leadership recently assembled its end of the year program on the campus of the University of Missouri in St. Louis. Students mingled with professional journalists to discuss the role of the media in creating social change.
The adults offered the youngsters concrete, effectual and career-building advice, such as “don’t take no for an answer,” “don’t be afraid,” “don’t wait” and “show up and speak up.”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Sylvester Brown gave the most endearing advice of all. He said, “You’re all here for a reason, so expand on it. This here is going to change the city.”
Cultural Leadership is a nonprofit, youth development organization open to sophomores and juniors in high school. Recruitment and selection of students occurs at the beginning of their sophomore or junior year. For more information, call 314-725-3222 or visit www.culturalleadership.com