FCPS Students Named 2023 Student Peace Award Winners
Students from 26 Fairfax County public schools have been named recipients of the 2023 Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County, designed to recognize young people who work as peacemakers.
The Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County were begun in 2006 to encourage people to think more about peace as both a means and an end, and to recognize young people who work as peacemakers. Every year, the high schools in Fairfax County are asked to select one junior or senior, or a group of students, whose work has promoted peace. The project is organized by volunteers and funded by donations from 17 secular and religious sponsoring organizations.
The 2023 recipients are:
Filimon Meaza, Annandale High School. Filimon Meaza started his own podcast, The Brief Dive, during his sophomore year. The Brief Dive offers teens and their parents short, informative episodes that focus on topics related to the mental health of teens. Recent episodes included discussions of anxiety, goal setting, loneliness, sleep, social media and how everything in the world is connected. Filimon says his goal in producing the podcast is to provide a place where teens can learn more about the issues they may be dealing with and to know they’re not alone. Parents also find a reprieve in listening to his podcasts, which helps them to know that their child isn’t the only one dealing with certain issues.
Debora Horng, Centreville High School. Debora Horng is the vice president of the Centreville chapter of Bake4Sake, a national organization that provides fresh baked goods to homeless shelters. She coordinates with local shelters and recruits volunteer bakers from Centreville High School and the surrounding area so that local shelters can have a steady supply of unique and delicious brownies, pies, cookies and other baked goods. She uses social media to generate interest, sign up volunteers and share recipes. Debora’s chapter of Bake4Sake donates food about three times a month, and at least three volunteer bakers contribute food each time.
Ella Ostlund, Chantilly High School. Ella Ostlund and her sister co-founded Super Service Kids when they were in the 4th and 5th grades. Super Service Kids is a youth-led service organization that partners with nonprofits to help children. They recruited kids from their neighborhood and school to meet on a monthly basis to identify and work with nonprofits that are local, national and international. Over the past nine years, dozens of children ages 6 to 18 have participated in dozens of projects such as cutting old denim and upcycling plastics to be used to make shoes for children in Uganda to protect their feet from parasites, preparing bagged meals and collecting supplies for a shelter, collecting stuffed animals for first responders to give to children during emergencies such as a house fire, organizing school supply drives, and raising funds for clean water projects. In addition to her work with Super Service Kids, Ella has been involved in advocacy and fundraising for women’s rights issues and in protests to encourage sensible gun laws.
Ella Duncan-High, Edison High School. Ella Duncan-High is the outreach director of the Virginia chapters of Generation Ratify, a youth-led movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and advance gender equality. In this position, Ella engages and recruits young people to become active in politics, guides all Generation Ratify chapters in Virginia, and trains leaders to start equal rights clubs in their own schools and communities. She and her colleagues at Generation Ratify have lobbied for Black maternal rights and reproductive rights in Virginia, LGBTQ rights, transgender participation in sports, and gender identification rights. Ella also helped launch the Coalition for Virginia’s Future, a collection of youth-serving organizations that seek to amplify student-led organizing work. She led a walk-out at Edison High School last year to fight gun violence and another for LGBTQ Trans rights. She is also the Event Organizer for the Environmental Club at Edison High School, which is working to get Edison the title of a Green Flag Certified School.
Adan Eftekhari, Fairfax High School. Adan has volunteered for over 500 hours with the Touch of Life Foundation, an organization based in Vienna, Virginia that provides active assistance to child trafficking victims sheltered at an orphanage in Rajasthan, India. Touch of Life also conducts education and advocacy focused on stopping child exploitation in the metropolitan Washington region, across the US, and around the globe. His work to stop child trafficking has included frequent writing for their newsletter and blog; organizing online webinars with national and international participants; speaking at local and regional conferences; briefing Rep. Gerry Connally’s staff about the child trafficking provisions of the Affordable Care Act and solidifying his support for the bill; and briefing Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on the issue. Adan has helped raise approximately $40,000 in support of the Bal Ashram orphanage and other anti-trafficking activities through community fundraisers and outreach to local businesses.
Lucia Patino Iporre, Falls Church High School. Lucia Patino Iporre, an immigrant from Bolivia, saw that lack of English language skills significantly affects other students’ ability to participate in high school life. She started translating the student activity bulletins and other school documents into Spanish. This practice was ultimately extended by the staff using Google Translate into translations for Vietnamese and Urdu speakers, the next two most widely spoken non-English languages at her school. Lucia also asked student club officers to encourage non-English native speaking students to participate in clubs and to try out for sports. She was especially delighted when a friend made it to varsity soccer, a team he had not previously realized was open to him. Lucia and the other two Equity Ambassador leaders at Falls Church High School are starting a student equity council so that students will have a safe space to express their ideas to the school administration.
Ash Bulmer, Hayfield Secondary School. Ash Bulmer is a political activist, with a primary emphasis on gun violence and rights for members of the LGBTQ community. Shortly after the May 2022 Uvalde shooting, in which 19 students and 2 teachers were gunned down, Ash worked with the other leaders of the newly formed Students Demand Action club and members of Moms Demand Action to organize a walkout from Hayfield. Over 800 Hayfield students joined in the demonstration. Last October, Ash worked with other members of the Gender Sexuality Alliance club to organize a walkout for LGBTQ rights and to protest Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposed policies. Almost 900 students at Hayfield participated, along with students at over 100 schools across Virginia. These protests led to the policies being delayed.
Amanda Green, Herndon High School. Amanda developed the Herndon High School chapter of Morgan’s Message, which was first founded by her older sister, into a broader program after her sister’s graduation. Morgan’s Message is a national program to normalize mental health conversations and encourage active support for those who reach out for help. At Herndon High, the main event for Morgan’s Message is called Dedication Games. In the spring, at team home games, the playing fields were decorated with butterflies, which is Morgan Message’s symbol. Prior to the games, flyers were distributed and Amanda gave a pregame speech encouraging students to support each other and seek help when they’re struggling. During the school year, the club met for various activities such as writing inspirational messages on paper butterflies to put up around the school. Amanda is also the president of Herndon’s Best Buddies club a global program assisting those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Girl Up (Aileen Mendieta, Milenka Terceros-Granado, Alessandra Simmons-Robles, Alice Mayer, Daniela Pineda), Justice High School. Girl Up is a girl-centered leadership development initiative, focusing on equity for girls and women. The Justice chapter was established in the 2016-17 school year and has expanded steadily to its current membership of more than one hundred students. The group meets every month to plan, work on, and introduce projects and fundraisers focused on sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for girls. The group’s ongoing work includes its Menstrual Equity project to provide feminine products in school restrooms. The club also collects and distributes clothing for school formal events year-round. Other recent projects have included collecting winter coats and accessories for Justice students in need and partnering with other school clubs to assemble feminine hygiene kits for a school in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) in Africa. The club raises funds for its school-based programs as well as for United Nations Girl Up efforts such as Bras for a Cause, which promotes breast cancer awareness, and the SchoolCycle program to provide bikes for girls in developing countries to ensure safe travel to and from school.
Jessica Sim, Lake Braddock Secondary School. Jessica started the Philanthropy Club at Lake Braddock with the help of her sister. The club’s first project, a drive to support needy families, raised $5,000 by partnering with other clubs and through direct solicitation of area businesses, churches, and the PTSA. The club also delivered over a thousand hand-made Valentine cards to seniors in rehabilitation centers and organized outdoor schoolground cleanups during the pandemic. Two years later, Jessica started Being Better Bruins, a club focused on social justice, civic engagement, and citizenship, which has successfully run a classroom supply drive and which plans to work on a speaker series addressing issues such as racial equality and LGBTQ+ rights. Outside of school, Jessica serves on the Fairfax County Student Human Rights Commission.
Bareen (Bree) Yagana, Langley High School. Bree Yagana has been involved in helping refugees since she was a freshman in high school. That year she volunteered with International Rescue Committee and began remote Zoom sessions with young refugees to help with homework, college preparation and cultural assimilation. She then founded her own English language and cultural assimilation program with the objective of easing potential culture shocks and language barriers for refugees. She now conducts a weekly class with a core group of five young Afghani women with others joining periodically. Over time, Bree has found that the most helpful approach is to center each class discussion around a practical theme, such as grocery shopping, visiting a doctor’s office, or going for a job interview. rather than teaching language and grammar per se. This winter, Bree also conducted a coat drive for Afghan refugees and collected more than 100 coats.
Mohamed Karim El-Gaili, Lewis High School. Mohamed Karim El-Gaili is a proud member of Powerful African American Males About Success, a skill-building literacy and mentoring program at John R. Lewis High School. The program pairs upper-class high school students with a younger mentee for regular sessions devoted to social and academic skills. The program was designed to help African American males increase school engagement and retention, and to explore opportunities for academic advancement, thus closing the achievement gap. Over the years, the program has expanded to several neighboring schools in Fairfax County. One of the main goals of the program is to prepare African American males to make a successful transition from high school to institutions of higher education. In addition to striving to develop global citizens and lifelong learners with exemplary habits of the mind, the enterprise believes it provides the promise of chipping away at the nation’s alarming racial wealth gap.
Matthew Sullivan, Madison High School. After his grandfather suffered a debilitating stroke, Matthew started volunteering at the Stroke Comeback Center, a community-based non-profit organization in Vienna. He organized a Fun Run and an online fundraiser which raised $10,000. Additionally, as part of his Eagle Scout project, he built a “Little Library” in the center to make books readily available. Matthew also works to educate the younger scouts in his troop about strokes and its victims. He taught them to recognize the early signs of a stroke, and he discussed the importance of treating all the Center attenders with respect and dignity. He pointed out that the inability to speak does NOT mean that the patient is unable to understand. Matthew’s coaching and encouragement enabled the younger scouts to see past the disability and to recognize each client as a unique human being.
No Place for Hate, Marshall High School. No Place for Hate (NPFH) works to promote inclusivity at Marshall. The members create events to promote awareness and understanding of people with disabilities. Last year, NPFH planned and created a video lesson presentation about supporting inclusion for special needs students, especially those with physical disabilities. The lesson focused on ensuring that these students get the best education possible. The video lesson was shown to every student, and teachers engaged them in a conversation. NPFH organized an event at the end of last year to give students with physical disabilities graduation cords. These long pieces of colorful rope are typically given for academic achievement or participation in a school club. These students’ cords were awarded to celebrate the courage and perseverance of students with special needs who completed their graduation.
Saehee Perez, McLean High School. Saehee Perez is a political activist and student leader at McLean High School. In her freshman year, she co-founded Fairfax County COVID Aid. The organization included more than 100 volunteers who provided groceries and delivery to those isolated by the pandemic, as well as online tutoring services. Over 2,200 people received help. She is also president of McLean’s Model UN, is active in Virginia Young Democrats lobbying for bills in the state legislature and is on the leadership team for the Pride Liberation Project, a student-led organization advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights in Virginia.
Amare D’Agostino, Mount Vernon High School. Amare D’Agostino is president of the Asian Pacific Islander American Club and helped it to expand to fourteen area high schools, working against discrimination and hatred toward Asians by holding cultural events and providing Asian students a platform to discuss their lives. He organized a peaceful student walkout to protest the Governor’s moves to eliminate policies that protect LGBTQ students. As director of Mount Vernon’s News MVTV, he has been able to use the platform to fight LGBTQ discrimination and has successfully advocated for change to everything from restrictive bathroom policies to leave policies, and especially to draw attention to problems and resources concerning student mental health. As Mount Vernon’s Equity Ambassador, he worked to get the School Board to make the standards of learning more equitable and got the board to accept multiple religious holidays that were previously not recognized as leave days.
Aaliyah Garnett, Mountain View High School. In response to the killings of Trevon Martin, Michael Brown, and George Floyd, Aaliyah educated herself about policing and racial injustice and the history of racism and white supremacy. She participated in a Black Lives Matter march but wanted to do more and started to write an article for her school newspaper, the Mountain View Mirror. Several years earlier, her older brother had been killed in a violent crime. According to Aaliyah, the memory of her brother inspired her to finish the article knowing that her brother would support her advocacy and be proud of her for making her thoughts known to her school community. In the article, she writes, “Peace is freedom from violence and hatred. Peace is justice and equity.” Aaliyah says that she loves writing, plans to continue speaking out, and believes in the power of the pen.
Frank Marquez, Quander Road School. Frank Marquez is involved in many school projects focused on helping his fellow students learn cooperation, entrepreneurship, teamwork, and the power of giving. Frank is an integral part of the Cobra Car Wash program. Students give up their Saturdays to raise money for student activities, such as field trips to local organizations which support workforce development. Frank also manages a school-run company which sells t-shirts and mugs. He is active in food service, managing the Quick Stop for student snacks and the Road Café which sells meals to students and staff. According to a faculty member, “Frank has a unique awareness of students’ problems and gives them opportunities to solve them and to avoid misguided behavior by participating in group activities. In the classroom Frank helps students avoid negative situations, solve potential problems, and learn from his modeling ways.”
Jaeda Lawton, Robinson Secondary School. Jaeda has provided piano music in facilities catering to dementia patients, organized trash cleanups, and worked to extend awareness of antisemitism within the community. This year, she organized a walkout of over 250 students at Robinson Secondary School in support of LGBTQ+ rights. She recently helped revive the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club that was put on hold during Covid. The club has recently promoted a “Trans Anthology Project” that supports the LGBTQ+ community by encouraging students to write stories of their struggles to help spread community awareness of the issues they face. In addition, she has used her skills as an artist to celebrate diversity at Robinson, to help destigmatize mental health disorders, and to show the value of bystander intervention when discrimination takes place in a public setting. Jaeda plans to continue to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community and other misunderstood groups affected by discrimination.
John Claude Shaffer, South County High School. John Claude Shaffer crated an Elder Outreach program that helps brighten the lives of elder residents in eight retirement communities. He felt there was a need to connect his generation with those most affected by the pandemic. The program now has multiple chapters involving more than 350 students from seven high schools in Fairfax County. They began with students writing letters and delivering them to two local retirement homes. As Covid restrictions eased, the letter-writing campaign morphed into students making in-person visits to socialize with the residents, organize crafts and activities, and deliver musical and dance performances. Says John, “Inter-generational activities among students and the elderly not only add to the quality of life of retirement home residents, but also provide opportunities for students to learn from the wisdom and experience of an earlier generation.”
Urooj Khattak, South Lakes High School. Over the course of her high school career, Urooj Khattak’s work has spanned from the support and mentoring of other students to environmentalism, health care education, and advocacy for human rights and social justice. As a South Lakes Ambassador, she supports other students new to American schools, helping students with classes, clubs, and basic skills such as getting on the right bus. As a member of the environmental club, she has been active in clean-up days, recycling projects and education programs. Last summer, Urooj volunteered with Girls Learn International, an organization that empowers and educates young women to advocate for human rights, equality, and universal education. She has also worked on a team that sent emails and letters to members of Congress advocating for gun regulation and equity in education.
Social Change Club (Sophia Li, Annika Holder, Jaya Gupta, Ananya Bandaru, Harika Akundi), Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. TJ’s Social Change Club works to raise awareness of social, environmental and other current affairs. The club meets monthly to discuss these issues, many of which are potentially divisive. From their discussions and activities, the club members realized that ethnic groups were not represented in the school curriculum. They therefore got to work on creating the curriculum for an ethnic studies elective The proposed course syllabus will be piloted this summer and offered to TJ students by the History Department in 2023-24. They hope to see this ethnic studies class go county-wide in the next few years.
Sarah Salama, West Potomac High School. Sarah Salama is a Student Lead of West Potomac’s Student Equity Coalition, spreading awareness of gun violence and harassment, urging equitable teaching practices in classrooms, and assisting first-generation college applicants. The group brought attention to these issues by posting signs, distributing flyers, and holding meetings. They had a donation drive which provided college test preparation books to several dozen students. Sarah also worked to gather supplies such as food, toiletries, and toys to distribute to centers that serve Afghan refugees. She estimates that they assisted about 150 local refugees and their families. Sarah also collaborated with other clubs and teachers to bring the concerns of students with disabilities, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community to the West Potomac principal who resolved the situations.
Muqtader Zahid, West Springfield High School. As president of West Springfield’s chapter of UNICEF, Muqtader has helped organize campaigns to assist children around the globe. Last year the club joined a school supplies drive to collect items for a free school built for underprivileged children in The Gambia. As a UNICEF UNITE volunteer, Muqtader meets with congressional officials to promote sponsorships and laws relevant to UNICEF’s agenda. Salna and Samaya Zahid, sisters of Muqtader, each received a Student Peace Award for founding and being active members of Spartans for War Victims, an organization dedicated to assisting civilians suffering from the effects of war. Muqtader is now the president of the club, organizing countless humanitarian and advocacy projects and awareness workshops. Their major event is an annual winter clothing drive. This year they collected over 500 garments to send to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.
Cameron Kasper, Westfield High School. Cameron Kasper organized a peaceful walkout of over a hundred students at Westfield High School to protest Governor Youngkin’s recent Model Policies update on treatment of transgender students in Virginia schools. Cameron said, “On the day of the walkout, Westfield, along with nearly one hundred other schools in the state, chose to stand against bigotry and discrimination in order to protect students’ rights and identities. Since then, the vote for the Model Policies implementation has been pushed back and its proposed guidelines have been heavily criticized for their blatant biases.” Cameron also co-leads a group that lobbies for laws to help reduce gun violence.
UNICEF Club (Sophia Huh, Katelyn Tran, Jacqueline Truong, and Roen Dioquino), Woodson High School. The Woodson High School UNICEF Club supports children in need around the world, defending their rights, and helping them live fulfilling lives. Monthly meetings of the club have raised student awareness through presentations and discussions on issues like child immunization, the Ukraine crisis and gender equality. In the past year, the club has raised money for UNICEF’s annual Trick-or-Treat campaign that helps underprivileged children around the world with health care, safe water and sanitation, education and emergency relief. The club also recently organized a winter clothing drive for low-income families in the area and has sent “Letters and Artwork for Hope” to Ukrainian refugee children and also to pediatric patients at Inova hospitals.
