Borderless Relations Committee 

I am a member of many clubs and organizations dedicated to advocating for worldly change. I’m a committed advocate for civil rights and anti-racism, and have been part of many initiatives on this front. Alongside two classmates, I founded a committee dedicated to creating anti-racism programs for Hancock County elementary schools. We called it the Borderless Relations Committee (BRC).

 We received a $500 grant from On Earth Peace, a Kingian-nonviolence organization dedicated to helping communities learn and respond to conflict and injustice. They gave us lessons about how to engage in these difficult conversations peacefully, how to be teachers, not fighters, how to rise above, and give people an out rather than backing them into corners from which they were bound to become even more defensive and close-minded.

 We reached out to, and partnered with, our town’s Black Heritage Library, and had meetings with its president and board members. We also met with Findlay’s Mayor, who gave us her full support, our high school’s Principal, several teachers, and the Head of Diversity and Inclusion at the Marathon Petroleum Company's Findlay Headquarters. 

We designed a program to purchase picture books for elementary students, classrooms, teachers, and libraries, focused on racial discrimination, acceptance, and the appreciation of differences in our community. Our titles include Something Happened In Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice and Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness. We loved to host discussions after reading so that the students could express their feelings, understand the effects of racism on people and the community, learn to recognize it, and stand against it. 

Not only did we create a greater sense of “belonging” in Findlay, helping it to become a town of true equality, but we also learned so much from this experience. I learned how no matter how lonely this world may seem, there will always be people out there who share the same dream of making this world a better place for those who don't feel like they belong.