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FFC Youth Leadership Micro-Grants
The Fetzer Institute recently honored FFC by designating us as a recipient of their Common Cause Award, which is granted to an organization that shares in the common work of the Institute – "to serve those who are turning the tide of our times from fear and violence to love and forgiveness." This $10,000 grant will enable FFC to continue to support youth as they develop into the leaders of tomorrow. Click here to see instructions and apply for a Youth Leadership Micro-grant>> The remarkable initiative displayed by participants in the Children of Abraham Peace Essay Contest has motivated us to invest in both the particular projects they have undertaken and also their personal development as our future leaders. These high school students have researched the Abrahamic religious traditions, investigating topics like peace, leadership, and social justice, and used that knowledge to propose a creative project to benefit their community, their nation, or the world. Our public interest leadership program is modeled after the highly successful micro-loan program for private businesses in developing countries started by Muhammad Yunus, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Youth Leadership Micro-Grants take the form of cash awards presented to 10th and 11th grade students on the basis of the creativity, relevance, and viability of their proposed projects. We have found that the micro-grant awards have far reaching effects for these students, who have found themselves engaging with both family and community in new ways as they bring their chosen cause to the attention of concerned individuals. Our program permits a $1,000 donation to become a $3,000 investment in projects that promote both the common good and civic engagement. Our young activists understand that the funds they are granted multiply to the extent that they are successful in raising additional funds, which are then matched by FFC. Please read on to learn a little about the creative enterprises that have been funded thus far. 2006- 2007 Youth Leadership Micro-Grant Award Winners:
Priya Agarwal-Harding, currently studying at Wellesley and formerly a student at Glenelg Country School, works with an organization in India called PRAYAS, which offers shelter and other aid to victims of child-trafficking. Priya was able to spend some time during the winter of 2007-2008 and the summer of 2008 working again with PRAYAS in India. The organization has launched a project they are calling “Girls’ Empowerment” (G-Power for short) in honor of her effort, which Priya will direct utilizing the award money and other money she has raised. "The Fund for the future of our Children’s support was instrumental inhelping me raise these resources and be an advocate for PRAYAS and to begin the G-power project in India. My initial essay that I submitted to the Peace essay contest in 2006 which received Honorable Mention, and the FFC’s subsequent support for my work with PRAYAS helped me maintain my focus and enthusiasm for this work and became pivotal in helping me be an advocate for the issue of child trafficking in India. Through this support I was able to raise a total of $8,500 over the course of two years. Two thousand of which was provided to me on a grant by FFC. I hope to return to PRAYAS next year to continue my work with G-power and to continue to learn about child trafficking issues." – Priya Agarwal-Harding Preview Priya Agarwal-Harding's PRAYAS video
Melissa Mergner is a senior at the Communication Arts Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and also attends the Visual Arts Center magnet program at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, Maryland. She has written and directed several short documentaries, including: "Legacy of Peace" about Japan’s atomic bomb victims, "Woody Guthrie: Voice of the Common Man" about the legendary singer-songwriter, “Invisible and Invaluable” about the plight of farm workers, "The President as Commander-in-Chief" about the importance of foreign affairs in the presidential election, "Speaking Truth to Power" about farm labor activist Baldemar Velasquez, and "Forgotten War, Unforgettable Aftermath" about the Korean War. Her films have won awards or have been shown at over 50 film festivals across the U.S. She also produced a video for Velasquez's song "Song for Urbano," about the tragic death of a migrant farm worker in North Carolina. She received a leadership grant from that organization to make a film about her Korean grandfather and the issue of reunification in Korea to be completed in 2009. She also traveled to India in the summer of 2008 to produce a film about child trafficking in India. She was chosen as a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar at New York University, where she will study film at the Tisch School of the Arts starting in the fall of 2009. "I am very grateful to the Fund for the Future of our Children for the micro-grants I received to support my film projects about Korean reunification and child trafficking in India. I have been making documentaries since I was 12, but the process of filmmaking doesn’t seem to get easier. The costs of the equipment and supplies, as well as travel, can be overwhelming. The support I received from the FFC not only helped me to pay for these costs, but also gave me confidence to take on more projects. Having an organization like the FFC endorse my work has made me think of myself as a real professional and has encouraged me to stick to an artistic vision that many people would think of as too idealistic. The support I’ve received from FFC has made idealism seem like realism. I will always be indebted the organization for that belief." –Melissa Mergner Preview Melissa Mergner Quicktime Movies 2007-2008 Youth Leadership Micro-Grant Award Winners:
Devika Jaipuriar is an 11th grader at Glenelg Country School, envisions an outreach project to teach children the basics of environmental awareness. Earth Girl! is a comic book about a superhero who is trying to save the world from pollution. The comic book will be a launching pad for a broader program involving a tour of Earth Girl to elementary and middle schools to discuss environmental stewardship. "My Earth Girl project has made many strides since the Kick-off event last November. By the end of 2008, the Earth Girl story was complete. After a few more minor corrections, the story was given to the illustrator. A few weeks later I received the black and white copy of The Adventures of Earth Girl. I always knew that the book would come out some day, but holding it in my hands gave me a surreal feeling. After the hours of work I had put into this project, it was finally coming alive. Without the generous grants given to me by the FFC program I would not have been able to reach this point. This entire process has been a great learning experience for me. I learned the importance of teamwork, communication, and diligence. However, the most valuable lesson I learned was about keeping faith. Because of the undying faith that Mr. Weeks, my parents, and all of the members of FFC had in me I was able to make this project a success. Faith is the fuel that has kept Earth Girl going and it will keep her alive for years to come." –Devika Jaipuriar
In July 2009 Devika will be in Delhi, India with her mentor David Weeks to tell Earth Girl’s story to the young children of Ryan International School and to discuss with high school students from the same school how one can transform one’s vision into reality with the support of a mentor. When Devika returns to her home in Ellicott City, Maryland she will work on fundraising to help support the printing and distribution of her Earth Girl story. Additionally she hopes to raise enough funds to make it possible to contract with illustrator K. Michael Crawford for the development of an Earth Girl coloring book for young children to be printed in the 2009 - 2010 school year. Devika will also work on scheduling more Earth Girl presentations for local elementary school audiences in the fall. Devika has clearly made a positive difference in her world by promoting Earth Girl’s messages of healthy social living and responsible environmental stewardship to young children with her printed story and performances in elementary schools. Please click here to read the Eartn Girl article from Mr. David Weeks.
Jonathan Kesten is a senior at Montgomery Blair and soon will be a Georgetown Hoya. In his work with (SGU) School Girls Unite (an international non-profit promoting girls' education worldwide), two benefit concerts have been held which have raised enough to support over 80 young women in Mali, Africa to attend school. "Thanks to the micro-grants from the FFC, School Girls Unite have been able to tackle even more education and justice related issues in the developing world. Currently SGU is working on a bilingual ‘Action Guide’ cataloging the progress of SGU and capturing the initiative needed to solve global education problems in our modern world. School Girls Unite has raised $4,822.87 (almost 5k) in the concerts, thanks to the gracious support from the FFC.” - Jonathon Kesten 2008-2009 Youth Leadership Micro-Grant Award Winners: Aishini Thiyagarajan The importance of the responsibility and charity we must show towards the Earth we live in is what has prompted me try to do what I can so that I can live up to the words I took time writing. Walking through the hallways of my school I started thinking about ways I could get schools in my community to actively and collectively participate in helping the environment. My main goal is to launch a forum, called Morning D.E.W, which will serve as a gateway to promoting environmental awareness in schools in my area. Through the forum, I hope to bring together many schools, so that students can create and share ideas on what they can do to help their environment. Some of the activities that I plan on starting through the website include building kitchen gardens. Students can not only learn and grow closer to the environment they are living in but they can also sell their school grown food to the school PTA. The money could then be used to buy goods and services for soup kitchens and homeless shelters. I also want to start up more contests for elementary school students, as I feel that holding essay and debate contests would be giving the students opportunities to learn more about the environment as I did through participating in the FFC. I hope to have a partnership with the City of Rockville, where I can engage with different children and work with them in building kitchen gardens. I know that my project will not churn results immediately but with time, effort and a lot of fun, I hope that I can spread the knowledge I have learned through FFC to others. This project will require a lot of time and effort and I hope to use the summer before my junior year as a wonderful time to get my project up and running. The funds will then be used (hopefully) to Pratham which is a non-governmental organization that promotes education in India. I also hope to use funds for schools and community shelters nearby that may be in need of more resources towards education. Andrew Franklin The Baltimore Station is a homeless shelter and recovery/rehabilitation center for former drug addicts. The two goals of the Baltimore Station project are the construction of a sustainable rooftop greenhouse and a garden in a vacant lot near the homeless shelter. The greenhouse will serve as both an urban agricultural center to grow an assortment of fruits and vegetables and as an educational center for the immediate community: the center itself, the neighborhood and the local school. Maintenance of the garden and greenhouse will primarily be the responsibility of the men of the Baltimore Station. A micro-grant of $1,000 will be used for the initial funding of this project. The final estimated cost of this rooftop garden will be approximately $15,000.00. Additional funds will be needed to establish the garden in the vacant lot near the Baltimore Station homeless shelter. Fundraising activities will include proposal writing to foundations and collaboration on fundraising events with the local neighborhood and school. Due to the extent of the construction and material costs for the building of the green house and the establishment of the community garden, matching grant opportunities will also be sought. Diana Jeang
Green Trading is a student-run high school-based program inspired by the system of carbon trading. The goal of Green Trading is both to educate and to encourage action. Before winter break 2009, students at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland can sign up to participate and fill out a form that tells where they plan to travel and by what means. Student volunteers then use this information to calculate the carbon emissions of each student, and the number of trees that would be needed to plant for sequestering this carbon output. Students are then asked to contribute a dollar-for-tree equivalent which is donated to the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization that plants one tree in an American national forest for every dollar it receives in donations. Students who sign up to participate in this program and who neutralize their carbon output will be entered into a raffle to win prizes. Over the summer and during the school year, Green Trading works to educate others on the individual’s effect on the environment in everyday activities. On the Green Trading website, people can learn more about carbon pollution, find tips on how to reduce their negative impact on the environment and calculate their carbon footprint. www.greentradingnow.com | Click here to view a write-up about Diana's project! I am also planning to invite a guest speaker to come to our school and have an assembly in the weeks before I launch the project and have people start signing up to participate. This will help raise awareness in my school (Blair is huge). I have spoken to teachers and students at my school who seem enthusiastic about the project. I will invite a guest speaker that is knowledgeable about carbon pollution and who can engage the students. I am thinking about contacting the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, but I also got a recommendation from a friend for actor Ed Begley who spoke at the Delaware Great Green Expo via Skype instead of traveling there to reduce his carbon footprint. Two of my friends from school and I worked to design the website for my micro-grant project. The website’s address is www.greentradingnow.com. The website provides educational information about carbon pollution and responsible stewardship of the environment on this site. The website will serve as an important fundraising tool when I go to ask companies for donations. I will be posting the names of all of the sponsors on this site and give an overview of my project. This will be another way of getting the word out. I want to have a carbon calculator on the website and maybe there could be a way for people to sign up to participate and send in donations online. This could be a great way of expanding the project beyond Blair. Besides asking companies to donate to our program, I also had the idea of doing fundraising sales or a fun-run to raise money. Laila Handoo In summary, my short-term benefits and goals are the following: My Long term plan is the following:
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