PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

When students in the Genocide Studies class learned about hate crimes across the US after the 2016 election, they knew that they were equipped to speak up, but they weren't sure that all of their peers felt that same sense of empowerment. They had three core ideas they believed could turn all of our community into upstanders:

1. Offer a candlelight vigil to share with the community what upstanding (vs. bystanding) looks like and why it matters. The vigil would include an opportunity for reflection on how each student could be an upstander.

2. Develop a pledge, rooted in the goal for our school, for community members to commit to be upstanders.

3. Offer a sticker about speaking up/being an upstander to community members to remind them of their commitments.

Their goal is to help the community to embrace their power to make a difference.