Ella Duncan-High’s introduction to activism stemmed from women’s issues. At thirteen, she volunteered for the 2018 National Women’s March where she assisted arriving participants and directed them to the march’s start. She volunteered in subsequent National Women’s Marches by helping with crowd control, setting the pace of the march, resolving conflicts, and assisting speakers.

In January 2022, Ella began an internship with the Vice Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Amy Jackson. Through this experience she gained knowledge of local, state, and national government work. Ella became the Outreach Director of the Virginia chapters of Generation Ratify, a youth-led movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment and advance gender equality in the US. (Visit https://www.generationratify.org. to learn more.) In this position, Ella engages and recruits young people to become active in national, state, and local politics. As Outreach Director, Ella guides all Generation Ratify chapters in Virginia and trains leaders to start equal rights clubs in their own high schools, colleges, and communities. She initiated Generation Ratify chapters in the Prince William County community, The New Community School in Richmond, and in the Fairfax County community, including Wakefield, Thomas Jefferson, Oakton, and Edison High Schools. Ella also spoke at two Virginia Women’s Summits about the importance of youth in politics.

Ella and her colleagues at Generation Ratify have also lobbied for Black maternal rights, abortion access and reproductive rights in Virginia, LGBTQ rights, transgender participation in sports, and gender identification rights. Building on this service, Ella helped launch the Coalition for Virginia’s Future, a collection of youth-serving organizations that seek to amplify student-led organizing work and to build a youth-inclusive future for Virginia. Ella plans to travel to Richmond to meet with leaders of other youth-led organizations such as Voters of Tomorrow, Virginia Young Democrat Team Caucus, and the Pride Liberation Project. They will be assisting each other in their advocacy for similar causes by lobbying dozens of legislators. Ella’s group will be focused on abortion access in Virginia and lobbying against the abortion ban.

Ella led two walk-outs at Edison High School last year. The first was a walk-out to fight gun violence in June. Ella coordinated the protest as well as the speeches made outside of the school. In September Ella, along with members of the Pride Liberation Project (https://prideliberation.org), led a walk-out for LGBTQ Trans rights.

Along with her activism, Ella serves and volunteers in other capacities. She has been elected class president for all four years of her high school career. She volunteers with the Capital Pride Alliance and has worked for animal rights by serving as a classroom aide at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Ella, with the help of her family, has fostered at least 20 dogs, helping them to find their forever homes. She is also the Event Organizer for the Environmental Club at Edison High School. Currently, they are working on getting Edison the title of a Green Flag Certified School.

Ella finds great satisfaction in her work. She says, “What I love most about the jobs and projects I work on is the community that comes and develops with it. I meet and learn from so many amazing and inspiring students that push me to be my best self. It makes me excited for our future and to see the amazing leaders that will emerge to lead and inspire our country.”