Valparaiso High School UNICEFers take on the Capitol

Valpo-DC-1Just a year ago, the idea of flying to Washington DC to talk with UN Ambassador Samantha Power, collaborate with over 300 other young UNICEF members, and visit Capitol Hill to advocate for important legislation would have been laughable. Just a year ago, I, along with four other passionate students, co-founded a UNICEF club at Valparaiso High School. With the hopes of raising awareness of issues happening in not only the United States, but in countries all over the world, we quickly scheduled a call-out meeting, cautiously keeping low expectations. To our surprise, over seventy students attended our very first meeting eager to learn what UNICEF was all about. With the momentum of a successful start, we were able to run fundraisers for causes including human trafficking, hunger, vaccinations, and earthquake relief, raising over $1000 in our first year as a club.

A month ago, Malika Saxena, President of VHS UNICEF, frantically sent the board members an email about a national youth conference in Washington DC happening at the end of February. With less than 24 hours before the deadline for registration, Event Planner Robert Kreloff, Club Member Lindsey Walsh, Saxena, and I, Vice-President, filled out applications, unclear of what exactly we were signing up for. After learning of our acceptance, we did some research and learned that the UNICEF Summit had previously been a conference for college clubs to meet and share what success their individual clubs had. 2016’s Summit was the very first opportunity for high school clubs to join, and Valparaiso High School became one of the first ten clubs to participate in the Summit.

After eagerly counting down the days to our departure, we landed in DC on the 19th of February. Upon our arrival at the 4-H Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, we were greeted by hundreds of students from multiple countries that shared the same exact passion we did for helping children all around the globe. The Summit began with a once in a lifetime experience of skyping with United Nations Ambassador Samantha Powers, who touched upon issues such as Syrian refugees. The floor was then open for questions, allowing students to hear extremely valuable advice on how to make an impact in the world. Next, Martin Rendón, Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy at the US Fund for UNICEF spoke to us about the immense power our voice has.

After talking with Rendón during dinner, Kreloff said, “Martin was a wonderful advocate for UNICEF and it was clear he was passionate about his career. He gave great advice that we were able to utilize on Capitol Hill later in the weekend.”

Valpo-DC-2Saturday morning started on an inspiring note with a speech given by Monique Coleman, most famously known for her role in High School Musical. Coleman’s story was not about her acting career, however. Coleman

created Gimme Mo’, an online platform to inspire today’s youth in an environment they feel comfortable in. In 2011, she was also named the UN Youth Champion, giving her another opportunity to inspire young people of the world. She also spent six months traveling the world, funding her own trip, meeting at UN buildings with natives of each country. Her parting words were, “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

Other highlights of the day included workshops on social media advocacy, club management, fundraising through sporting events, differences in culture, among other vital information to assist in expanding our club. A particularly moving keynote speaker of the day was Laura Ulloa, who had been kidnapped and held hostage for seven months in Colombia by Colombian Guerrillas. Her story did not focus on the horrors of what she had experienced, but the forgiveness she and her family had for her kidnappers. Her unique outlook on her situation and life in general was certainly an unforgettable one.

“It was really inspiring to listen to someone who went through so much and still had the amount of love and kindness in their heart like Laura had,” Walsh said.

The day concluded with an opportunities fair, introducing us to representatives from Georgetown University, the Peace Corps, the International Rotary Club, and more. Caryl M. Stern, President and CEO of the US Fund for UNICEF, also took the stage. Sunday’s awards ceremony included an extremely pleasant surprise to an already phenomenal weekend. We were awarded “Most Inspiring Club Story,” for all that we had accomplished in our first year as a club. Saxena was also named “Most Inspiring Student” for her evident passion for the organization. We then began training for Hill Day, in which we would meet with representatives from our state to ask for sponsorship of the Reach Act, as well as continued government funding for UNICEF in the 2017 fiscal year. Waking up bright and early Monday, we headed into the city with three extremely important meetings ahead of us. We were joined by Chicago’s Congressional Action Team Leader, Cecilia Torres. We first visited Indiana Representative Peter Visclosky’s office to meet with Archna Jaiman, stressing the importance of the Reach Act, which strives to protect women from the complications of childbirth, as well as children from easily preventable causes of death. From there, we met with Chris Chapman of Senator Joe Donnelly’s office and of Jon Kenworthy of Dan Coats’ office, hoping to show our state politicians that young people are aware of the problems around the world and want to help. After successful meetings, we were able to visit the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. The opportunity we had to advocate for issues that we believe in made our goals as a club so much more attainable than ever before.

“Living in a small town in Indiana makes some believe that we don’t have that great of a voice in inspiring and creating drastic, positive change...at least that’s what I thought until today,” said Saxena. “Today, I realized that having a genuine passion for something can influence the way others think, regardless of where you’re from. Many people don’t realize that as global citizens, we all must do our part in ensuring an equal, safe, and happy world - and today, four students from Valparaiso High School did just that. I lived a dream this weekend, and I can’t wait to do it again.”

Unfortunately, our weekend came to a close after Hill Day and we had to part ways with the amazing friends we had made from Texas, New York, and the Republic of Congo. We boarded our plane Monday evening with hundreds of new ideas to take back to our school, inspiring stories to share with our fellow club members, and a drive to accomplish more than we had previously ever imagined possible. I may have personally only slept a collective nine hours during the trip and walked over six miles in heels on Monday, but the weekend is one that will be affecting my decisions pertaining to our school club, as well as my own future. “Life-changing” does not even begin to encompass the experience the four of us had and we look forward to sharing all that we learned with the entire community.

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