Freshman present social justice projects

Freshman+present+social+justice+projects

The first annual Freshman Social Justice Project presentations were held in the Black Box on April 20, 2018.

For the projects, freshmen that are in Regular English classes went into groups and picked an injustice in their community or in the world, and researched the topic to present in front of their classes. The classes voted for the top three to go to the Black Box. The first place winners then presented in front of every regular English class while the other two watched. After the groups presented, then the whole audience voted for the winners.

“The freshmen English team of teachers wanted to implement a unit in the freshmen curriculum that had meaning and significance to the community and school,” said freshman English teacher Ashley Kopecky. “We wanted to challenge students to think outside the box while simultaneously making a difference on the world in which they live.”

Some students who presented in the Black Box took their topic to heart and wanted to inform people about their topic.

“I wanted to do suicide awareness for my project,” said Laura Czapiewski. “It felt empowering to present about this topic and educate people who might not know much about it.”

Freshman Victor Solano did his presentation on bullying and said that he learned a lot about it and the statics on how many people were bullied over the years.

In the end, the winning team that won was Jack Larson, Rebecca Frederichs, Dimitri Cannon, and Ellie Maata, and their topic was Third World Countries vs Grayslake North. The second place winners was Maggie Walker, Ryan Dugan, Miles Ceaser, and Naydelin Torres-Marquina, and their project was a mural titled Racial Connectivity.