Embedded Files
One of the reasons why I joined Big Picture was so I'd be able to receive school credit for a lot of the community service work I do with organizations like Outright Vermont and Planned Parenthood, and for founding and leading my club, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. After some discussion with my advisers, we concluded that the work I do with the community can absolutely be counted as my Service Thesis Project. As I mention on my essay, "my Service Thesis Project was and is to create awareness, challenge misconceptions, and promote education on LGBTQ topics so environments like homes, schools, and local communities are more inclusive and accepting towards the people they serve." Last year I was honored to receive Outright Vermont's 2016 Youth Activist of the Year Award for the efforts and dedication I have put into advocating for the LGBTQ community. Read more about my reflection of the experience below.
Some of the methods in which I served my community by promoting social change through LGBTQ education and awareness include:
- Founding the Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club
- Organizing weekly meetings on LGBTQ topics
- Planning and conducting after-school workshops
- Hosting and planning of school-wide events and awareness days
- Organizing and presenting at faculty and staff trainings and presentations
- Getting involved with Outright Vermont
- Sitting as a Youth Representative Board member on the Outright Vermont Board
- Being an official Youth Leadership Council Member and peer educator
- Teaching comprehensive educational LGBTQ workshops at schools, conferences, and public trainings
- Serving as a Youth Panelist during which I share my advice and experience as an youth in the LGBTQ community to a veriety of audiences (in the past having included elementary school faculty and staff, health care providers, college classes, guidance counselors, and more)
- Participating in state politics and advoacting for policies involving LGBTQ youth in which Outright Vermont is also a part of
- Do volunteer work at events hosted by Outright Vermont
Below is an example of a planning document for a school-wide Trans and Nonbinary Awareness Week event we hosted in March of 2017
The mission statement of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance Club is as follows:
"The Gender and Sexuality Alliance brings together students of different sexual and gender identities to not only create a safe and supportive space where they can meet new people, learn more about themselves and others, hang out, eat food and have fun, but also to inform the school of important issues to make our environment an accepting and more inclusive space. We will hold events such as outings, dances, movie nights, awareness days, and other activities. By bringing attention to topics such as gender identity, sexuality, allyship, etc. and advocating for equal treatment of all youth, we will defeat ignorance and harassment, reduce isolation and depression, teach students and faculty how to be more accepting, and create a school environment free of homophobic, sexual, verbal and physical harassment. "
Another example of community service and involvement was my two-year position as a Student Representative Board Member of the South Burlington School District School Board. Read more about that experience here
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