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LOS
ANGELES -- Some students have already gone back to school
while the remainders will hit the books just after Labor Day.
Bullying continues to be a huge problem in our schools nationwide.
Three high school seniors from southern California stood up, did
something and received scholarships for their efforts. The Abercrombie
& Fitch Anti-Bullying Scholarships total $1,000 each and can
be renewed for each of the four years that winners attend college.
“Bullying
is a national epidemic,” said Jacob Gardenswartz, the first
of the three winners from SoCal. “Research from several
years ago showed that every seven minutes a child fails to attend
school because of bullying. In addition to bullying in schools,
you’ve got things like domestic violence, workplace bullying,
elderly abuse. My program focuses on targeting this in the younger
stages so it doesn’t escalate into a mass murderer as the
students get older. We hope that by targeting these students younger
on, we’ll be able to help prevent some of these larger scale
crises.”
Gardenswartz
graduated from the Francis Parker School in San Diego. There,
he served as the student director of the Theater of Peace for
four years. Its mission is to routinely educate upcoming generations
of students about the methods to diffuse confrontational bullying
situations. TOP members present interactive skits for elementary,
middle, and high school students to witness approaches such as
ICE, interrupt, compliment, and escape.
“We
try not to say anti-bullying necessarily because we’re not
anti-anything, we’re pro peace,” he added. “We
have between eight and 10 different scenarios that will portray
different instances of bullying. Whether it’s bullying at
the lunch table or out on the field or at home or a high school
job, we try to show students, rather than telling them, this is
what you should do. We try to involve them in it. Right now, the
Theater of Peace is only located in the San Diego area.”
Jacob
was essential to the organization’s growth by assisting
in establishing partnerships, raising over $10,000 in grants,
reaching over 5,000 students, and receiving recognition from local,
state, and national officials, including President Obama. In addition
to having served as the keynote speaker at the TEDx Village Gate
Summit, he is also the president of Francis Parker School’s
Community Service Board, the Young Democrats Club, and the Gay-Straight
Alliance.
“I’m
starting a new organization with some of the high school seniors
that are also involved who are also going off to college. That
will be called ‘Impact on Stage.’ The goal is to take
this idea of using live theater to share a message in schools
and expand it nationally in schools and other topics beyond just
bullying. Things like consent in terms of sexual abuse and rape
cases and things like alcohol and drug abuse. We really want to
show that live theater can be a great medium for sharing ideas.”
Gardenswartz
learned of the A&F Anti-Bullying Scholarship during
the college application process. He said it took about six months
from the time he applied for the scholarship until he received
it.
“When
I saw this one, it was perfect for me because it’s exactly
what my program does. It’s something I’m very passionate
about. I saw it on some website somewhere and applied and crossed
my fingers. In the end, I was lucky enough to be chosen as a recipient.
It’s been really exciting. There was an awards ceremony
here in San Diego. I went and spoke a little bit about my program.
I was also in Chicago a little bit producing a video about anti-bullying
with Abercrombie & Fitch. They said it’s going to go
in to at least 4,000 schools across the country.”
He selected
to attend the University of Pennsylvania this fall. His major
will be communications and political science. He will hand off
the Theater of Peace program to other students at Francis Parker
School.
“Bullying
is a growing problem in our schools, unfortunately,” said
Suchi Amin, the second winner from SoCal. “Especially with
cyber-bullying, which is what I’m dealing with. It’s
absolutely growing how students can now communicate with each
other online and they have the privacy of a computer screen to
say more harsh words to each other.”
As the
original founder of the chain of anonymous Facebook accounts entitled
“Smile BeHappy,” Suchi launched her campaign with
an initial status stating, “Today is Day one. Day one of
Smiles, and day one of making people a little happier.”
She single-handedly combats what she considers to be “society’s
expectations of likes, followers, and image” that often
distorts teenagers’ perception of themselves and reality.
“I
led the Smile BeHappy Campaign, where I encourage positively through
all posts on social media,” she explained. “We started
off with a completely anonymous website. Everyday I would post
a long paragraph or so about someone random from my school. Every
single day for six months in a row I never missed a day. I continually
posted positive messages and it really reflected at my school
and others followed my example. What I really like to do is speak
from the heart. I try not to write long essays.”
In addition
to regularly honoring a “Person-of-the-Day,” Suchi
accepts and post complimentary messages from students seeking
to recognize others. She posts while on family vacations, during
commutes to athletic practices, and discreetly while attending
birthday celebrations. Suchi has received over 300 messages commending
her innovative efforts to establish a communal cyber environment
for over 500 students.
“My
Person-of-the-Day has been totally random. I basically see who’s
interacting with Smile BeHappy the most. Who’s been commenting,
who’s been reflecting and who’s been taking the initiative
to support the whole social media action. Those are the people
that I include in that chain of positivity. It was just so exciting
to see all of these comments. Someone would say, ‘Hey, can
you support the drama team?’ I would say something about
the drama, support different clubs/activities.”
Amin ended
the Smile BeHappy Facebook campaign after six consecutive months
in a very unique way.
“I
wanted my posts just to be something that was an example. I wasn’t
planning on making this a life-long commitment. This changed my
life and everyone else can make an impact on their own life. Everyone
would talk about, ‘Who is this person posting all of these
things?’ I posted my picture just to say, ‘This is
me.’ I’ve done all of this. I became a celebrity overnight.
I’m not taking credit for anything that I’ve done
because everything that I’ve done has been fueled by the
people who have interacted on this page.”
The Murrieta
Valley High School graduate learned of the A&F Anti-Bullying
Scholarship while she was searching for scholarships online.
“This
anti-bullying scholarship was totally unpredictable for me. I
thought, ‘What a way to actually spread my message?’
I figured, ‘Why not apply?’ I wasn’t expecting
much out of it, but they must have really enjoyed it. I thought,
wow, I just won a $1,000 scholarship. After that, I realized it
was also connected to NSHSS, the National Society of High School
Scholars Foundation, which was an organization that I’m
also a part of. They invited me for all of these different conferences,
they invited me to go to Chicago to film for the anti-bullying
movie that they’re making.”
Amin will
study biology at UCLA beginning this fall. Although the Smile
BeHappy campaign has ended, the idea is out there for others who
would like to start one at their school.
Abercrombie
& Fitch has sponsored the NSHSS Anti-Bullying Scholarship
for the past two years. The young adult retailer says the partnership
is part of its diversity program.
“The
anti-bullying cause is a serious issue within this consumer group
that we target,” said Michael Scheiner, A&F’s
senior director of marketing and public relations. “It just
made sense to just support the cause. Last year, in addition to
the scholarship, we launched our peer-to-peer symposium to talk
about bullying and bully prevention. In addition, we sold product
(t-shirts) in Abercrombie & Fitch stores to support the cause.
We haven’t announced our plans for this year yet. We will
continue to support the cause and it will be bigger than last
year.”
Scheiner
had no comment on the upcoming anti-bullying film, which was shot
in Chicago.
Ariana
Dermand, the third scholarship winner from southern California,
declined an interview. She graduated from Newbury Park High School
in Thousand Oaks and will study at Texas A&M University.
As for
the two scholarship winners, both offered tips to combat bullying
in schools.
“There
are a lot of resources for you to get support,” Gardenswartz
said. “If you just go online and search, ‘I need help
with bullying,’ there are thousands of websites that help
students get tools and ways to get through this. You’ve
got to believe in yourself.”
Amin added:
“The best thing is not remain silent. If you do nothing,
it’s almost as worst as being the bully. My best advice
would just be to stay positive, stay strong and know that there
are people out there somewhere willing to support you.”
For
more information about the A&F Anti-Bullying Scholarship,
visit www.nshssfoundation.org.
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Photo
courtesy of Suchi Amin |
Amin
had the opportunity to speak at the NSHSS conference in San
Diego.
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PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com |
Suchi
poses with her larger-than-life check inside her home.
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Photo
courtesy of Jacob Gardenswartz |
The
Theater of Peace program at Francis Parker School will continue
even without Gardenswartz.
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PHOTO
BY JASON RZUCIDLO / ©AMERICAJR.com |
Jacob
graduated from Francis Parker School in San Diego and will attend
the University of Pennsylvania this fall.