Ramsey Students Step Into Real World

http://www.northjersey.com/education/47172672.html

By Allison Pries Staff Writer

Fashion and Facebook aren't the only things on the minds of some Ramsey High School students.

The ethnic genocide taking place half a world away in Darfur has them giving up their Starbucks and donating the money to help refugees, writing letters to corporations and bending the ears of local congressmen.

About two dozen students at the school belong to a club called STAND that seeks to increase awareness about the killing of thousands in the Sudan.

This week, the students are organizing a summit with human rights clubs from across the county — including Indian Hills and Northern Highlands — to see how they can work together to develop a stronger voice.

"With all the access to information they have, the students are very well aware of what is going on in the world," said Stacie Poelstra who advises STAND and chairs the Ramsey school district's social studies department.

STAND is the nationwide student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network.

The Ramsey chapter is the only known one in North Jersey, Poelstra said, although other high schools have chapters of similar groups such as Amnesty International.

Ramsey's club was formed about three years ago, and has held several fund-raisers, including an art show and daylong fast in which students gave up a luxury good (such as gourmet coffee) and donated the money they would have spent to the cause.

They also held a school-wide day of political activity during which students could sign letters to corporations encouraging theme to divest from the Sudan and to local lawmakers to express their interest in the issue.

"We have taught the Holocaust under the theme of 'never again' and these students are acting on that," said Superintendent Roy Montesano.

STAND recently got a boost when a fellow from the Genocide Intervention Network (STAND's parent organization), who lives in Ramsey, reached out to club members.

"I feel very lucky to have found [these] students," said Karine Birazian, whose one-year fellowship began in January. "I'm sure they have a lot better things to do on a Friday afternoon than sit in a meeting with me talking about genocide. They're doing it because they really care about the issue."

A young person herself, Birazian, 25, said, this is a cause young people feel passionately about because "We don't want our kids to turn back and say mom what were you doing when Darfur was taking place to try and stop it."

Although her eyes were already open to international issues before joining the club, the outlet with which to take action has proven rewarding, said Lindsay Mulford, a junior at Ramsey High School and one of STAND's leaders.

"Junior year is torture," she said. "It would be very easy just to think about yourself the whole time and just go from test to test and essay to essay. But there are greater things in the world than high school."

Mulford, who is heading off to China this summer to study international relations and political science and dreams of working for the International Olympic Committee, says, "It makes you a more, well-rounded person when you become more aware of the real world."

E-mail: priesa@northjersey.com