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ӣ��ֱ�� Activism and Advocacy Scholarship

ӣ��ֱ�� will award five (5) students with a demonstrated passion for activism and advocacy $1,000 for their education. Are you passionate about bringing about social, political, or civil change in your community? Does a particular cause or idea have your attention? Do you hope to apply these skills to your college education? This scholarship will open again in 2024!

See previous winners here!

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ӣ��ֱ�� Diversity Scholarship

The ӣ��ֱ�� Diversity Scholarship of $2,000 recognizes five (5) high school junior or senior students who have demonstrated a commitment to expanding diversity and inclusion initiatives in their school, community, or workplace.

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ӣ��ֱ�� Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Teaching Grant

These five (5) $1,500 grant opportunities are for educators who serve in rural areas or diverse student populations or are actively promoting diversity and inclusion initiatives in their school or greater community. Applicants should provide their school’s demographics and explain how the funds will directly benefit their students. Funds may be used for supplies, materials, field trips or other resources to enhance the delivery of courses.

ӣ��ֱ�� strives to build a diverse membership base representative of the worldwide student population which we aim to serve. Our fee waiver program ensures that no qualified student is denied membership on a solely financial basis.��

It is our commitment that the membership fee and its payment never stands in the way of a qualified student becoming a member. We offer fee waivers for our lifetime membership to eligible high school students who may be experiencing financial hardship. More information about our fee waivers can be found here.

• ӣ��ֱ�� Student Council Member Danielle Geathers Becomes First Black Woman President of MIT Student Body
• "Blackout Stamford" Non-Profit Social Justice
  Advocacy Group Founded by ӣ��ֱ�� Ambassadors Leilah Saint Louis & Abnerline Macenat

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"I am a photographer and videographer. I have my own business for my work, Chasing Colors Imaging. I have always made an effort to emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion in my work, focusing on racial and disability equality. Following the death of George Floyd, several protests were organized in my area. I went to several of these in order to both show my support towards Black Lives Matter as well as to document the intense emotions of the people protesting. I was able to portray the hurt, pain, anger, and despair in the protesters' eyes. I showed these photos on social media as a way to help the protest gain the attention it demanded. A popular saying that I have heard during this time is "Do you want to be on the right side of history, or the wrong side?" and that sticks with me. I will continuously fight for equality in America and if I can do it through my art, that is even better. In July, I did a photography project in order to showcase diversity. Through this project I hoped to showcase the beautiful thing that is diversity. I had several people come out to be part of my project, and photographed them all the same way and style. The beauty of humanity is that we are all unique. Race simply exemplifies our unique beauty. In order to have equality, we must not only accept, but find beauty and love in our differences. I hope to be able to showcase my work on a broader platform and show everyone how wonderful and extraordinary humanity is. By taking small steps like this, I hope that we will eventually have a world of love."��
- Amber Tinny,��Waubonsie Valley High School
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"An initiative that I have started on my college campus (really for the whole community of POC) is The Brazen Writers Instagram/Blog page that highlights the voices of teens and young adults via poetry against the social injustices that have befallen my people for generations. This initiative was established on June 19, 2020 (the same day as Juneteenth). What sparked this project was the same spark that has set the world ablaze: the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor. These individuals suffered the worst side of social injustice out of everyone, which was inhumane murder. With this, I believed it was my duty to amass all of my brothers and sisters who have the same complexion as myself to raise our voices; and our protest comes from the pain that resides in hearts and is placed on display for the world to take notice. The challenges that we have faced are finding more like-minded individuals to express their voice through poems and not pain. So far, this project is a growing work in progress and I hope to see it flourish into something beautiful. This is the project that I have initiated in my home town."
- Eljin Rhymes, Florida A&M University
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Email:��brazenwriters2020@gmail.com��

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"Girls Learn International (GLI) is a worldwide organization that raises money for the education and well being��of girls all over the world. I am the leader of the only active GLI chapter on Staten Island, New York. This chapter holds its meetings at my high school, Saint Joseph Hill Academy. At our monthly meetings, we discuss women's issues in the world and how we, as high schoolers can help solve them. We have raised over $700 this year through bake sales and t-shirt fundraisers. In many countries, girls do not get the chance to go to school and GLI works to help change that. The money my chapter raises has been used towards textbooks, school supplies, and building schools with bathrooms. We even have a pad drive at our school to donate the sanitary napkins to those who don't have enough money to buy them. Our mission is to create gender equality all over the world. Being a feminist and activist has made me feel confident about myself. Joining GLI was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Leading this club put me in new experiences and taught me how to handle certain situations. I plan on leading GLI until I graduate high school and starting a chapter at my college, if it doesn’t exist already."
- Natasha Sharma,Saint Joseph Hill Academy
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"Project Ripples is the initiative that I created. Project Ripples exists with the mission to foster widespread learning for the future of the world through sustainable practice. Our project runs on solving one problem to tackle two. By encouraging local communities to resort to more sustainable practices, we can ensure that children throughout the global community have the opportunity to receive equal and accessible education. Project Ripples operates with two main purposes: providing environmental sustainability on a local scale through recycling, and combating educational inequity through providing funds to our direct connections or pre-existing organizations across the globe. The way in which we connect environmental sustainability into educational accessibility unveils itself in three simple steps: 1. Collect: We engage our community on a local scale to implement sustainable micro-changes to their lifestyle by collecting donations of recyclable plastic bottles and cans from our supporters. 2. Recycle: All bottles that we receive are recycled at a local recycling station. For every bottle earned, $0.05 is returned. 3. Impact: We then take the collective funds of all our bottle donations and send them to pre-existing organizations and our direct connections, who both share the goal of providing educational support to disadvantaged students. These pre-existing organizations include the St. Joseph’s and St. Labre Native American Schools, who work to protect the education of students living on reservations. Our direct connections include a network of extremely passionate teachers in the Philippines. Our prior projects include sending school supplies to impoverished students and providing a full year scholarship. Although five cents per bottle may sound minute according to our circumstances, this mere five cents monetarily equates to much more when sent to other countries, especially developing ones. We hope our system demonstrates that the seemingly smallest acts can make worlds of impact."
- Diana��Benedicto-Jimenez,��Paul D. Schreiber Senior High School
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"The Voices of Society was founded by my two friends and I in early June. It started out as an organization to spread awareness, not hate, and educate our peers on the struggles of the black community. We also bring awareness to issues that affect all minorities, and the world in general. Our main purpose is to encourage teens our age to look at things from a different perspective. Often times, in this day and age, we tend to sway to what we’ve always known. The Voices of Society encourages the youth to get uncomfortable, to learn, to speak out, and to take action. I was inspired by past activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis, and many others. What they had to face and fight is something that I’ll never be able to personally know. However, the youth and I can honor them by speaking out against what we know in our hearts isn’t right."
- Serena Petit,��Barbara Goleman High School
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"I have created an organization with my friends called the HCubed Foundation, which stands for Heart and Hope for the Homeless. The HCubed Foundation stands to support underprivileged people and alleviate pressure off of them to be more independent through providing them goods and services such as essentials (food, sanitary supplies) and free tutoring. My organization is looking to bring change into our community by supporting the underprivileged. We host food drives to collect food which we donate to local homeless shelters that we feel inspires change."
- Ansh Shah, Johns Creek High School
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History of Racial Inequality

How to Take Action for Racial Justice

• How to Have Supportive Conversations - INTENT vs. IMPACT

Today and every day, ӣ��ֱ�� stands with our members, parents, educators, colleagues, partners, and collaborators around the world to speak out against inequality and promote peace, understanding, and world betterment. ӣ��ֱ�� members, non-members, and educators gather virtually for the World Betterment Series��How To Be An Advocate: conversations about social justice and what it means and takes to be an advocate or ally. Topics range from����to climate action to ��and����allyship in these engaging, challenging, and productive sessions.

• CDC
• ACLU
• Refinery29

Other Advocacy Resources from