2018 Scholarships Awarded to Two High School Seniors
Two outstanding high school seniors will be awarded the 2018 Sojourner Truth Social Justice Awards. Lourdes Jean-Louis, Amherst Regional High School, and Sylvia Venus Shread, Northampton High School, will receive the scholarship award and speak briefly about their social justice work and their educational goals at the annual commemoration of the Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue at the corner of Park and Pine Streets in Florence on Sunday, May 27 at 2 p.m.
In her application essay, Lourdes wrote about defining experiences at the Minority Students Action Network conference and while living in Haiti:
I went to a four day national MSAN [Minority Students Action Network] conference in Ohio to create a plan to benefit students especially students of color that are in a system that predicts their failure from the beginning. During the conference I learned about the value of what it's like to be surrounded by young students of color that want to make change. The plan that my MSAN group created is a plan that teaches 9th graders how to have a successful high school career from the start without running into surprising bumps along the way.
Having lived in Haiti, I have seen situations where people, especially women, needed help but were not given the proper help they needed because of oppressive poverty and cultural values of physical and emotional pain. Public health, human care, human rights and gender studies’ programs will help me work towards promoting community physical and emotional wellbeing.
Sylvia shared her commitment to social justice at Northampton High School:
I started high school ready to smash the white-hetero-patriarchy with Environmental Club Mondays, Students of Color Alliance Tuesdays, Gender Sexuality Alliance Wednesdays, and co-running The Feminist Collective Thursdays. My choice to join every social justice club available at Northampton High School (NHS) was a manifestation of intersectionality impacting youth activism. For three years I dedicated myself to organizing Social Justice Week: each club was responsible for one day and on Friday we came together to concentrate on intersectionality with a panel of activists and professors. While at the time I felt like this was a new movement, after studying “Decolonizing U.S Women’s History” at Smith College this semester and researching Sojourner Truth’s life, it is clear I was at the feet of giants who had been working through Truth’s question for years.
The annual celebration includes an optional tour of the African-American Heritage Trail starting at 12:00 p.m. at the Sojourner Truth statue at the corner of Pine and Park Streets in Florence Center. The program follows at 2:00 p.m. and will include a keynote talk by Dr. Trevor Baptiste and music by the Amherst Area Gospel Choir. The program will be in the garden by the statue or in case of rain, across the street in the Community Center (red brick building).
The committee initiated the scholarship program in 2005, a few years after completing their nine-year campaign to erect the inspiring statue that now stands in Florence. Their goal is to ensure that Truth’s local legacy endures through the encouragement and recognition of new generations of courageous and committed voices for justice. Including this year’s recipients, 29 students received this recognition and scholarships that have increased over the years from $250 to $1000. Student applicants are required to submit an essay telling about their social justice experience and their goals for future leadership.
