Last fall, a friend from high school e-mailed me to say that he was now the principal of an alternative high school in the Bronx and he wondered if I would come speak to his students. Absolutely, I told him, and so my visit last week to New York was arranged to make good on that promise. I spoke to two groups of students at the JVL Wildcat Charter School’s Bronx campus (there are two campuses): an English class and the service learning afterschool group. It was an especially tender time to be on campus as the school had just lost a student to murder a few days before. That news made my time with the service learning group especially poignant as I shared with them that my community activist roots came from my experiences working at an alternative high school with a young man who wanted out of a gang. I started my talk with them by telling them why I was an activist– because the world is not yet fair and I believe wholeheartedly in justice- and I ended our time together by asking them to share why they were activists. Here are some of their reasons. Are you an activist? Why?
It’s in my blood. Seriously, it’s the only way I know how to deal with the inequities in this world.
Beautifully said, Veronica. And I completely agree!