Student-led conference inspires social action

YoungERPower is a conference created and planned by five eighth-graders: Maya Mokhtarzadeh, Campbell Lazar, Chloe Howell, Kyle Kettler, and Maarya Adil. The YoungERPower Conference aims to engage young people in social action and address social issues prevalent to today. 

The eighth-graders were inspired by the Young Power conference that happened on March 1 in London with high school students. The conference was entirely planned by students, with help from teachers, Mr. Latham Cameron and Mr. Brandon Block, as well as others.

The conference will be on April 26, from 8:45 am to 3:30 pm at Westminster Academy. Students at ASL had the opportunity to apply to join the conference, and other schools around London were also invited. 

Discussing topics such as gender, sexuality, sexual harassment, adultism, class, race, cliques, and both academic and social exclusion will allow students to take action against these injustices and fight for what they believe in. The conference will be engaging many different people from different backgrounds and schools across London, to create a safe and diverse community. 

This conference allows individuals to share their passion for social justice. It gives young people a platform to speak, showing that their voice matters. Once young people know that, they can shake the world. 

YoungERPower will allow young people to channel their voice in a way that will help spread the message to others. The program is so diverse and will therefore be able to help share different people’s perspectives.

This conference will allow youth to spread their passion with others and help stop social injustices that are so prominent today. Adil said that it will teach an extremely important lesson, to stand up to what is wrong. The youth are the next generation, but only if they use their voice and make a change for what they believe in. 

About Maarya Adil ('23)

Staff Writer

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