From an early age Jewel Coulter has pondered questions about the impact of identity on people’s experience of the world. Being a person of mixed race, she says, has put her into systems of oppression since childhood. She has observed the disparity among her own family, and their experiences as Vietnamese, African American, and White members of the community. When she began attending Annandale High School, one of Fairfax County’s most diverse high schools with a higher than average rate of poverty, Jewel began her equity work in earnest. She wanted to ensure that, “people see our school as diverse, not disadvantaged.”

Jewel served as a volunteer for the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC), whose website is https://nakasec.org/. Their mission to organize Korean and Asian Americans to achieve social, economic, and racial justice was appealing to Jewel. During her work on their 2020 civic engagement campaign, she worked to educate the community about important issues leading up to the 2020 election. She also helped people register to vote and answered questions about the election.

What she learned about state and local elections highlighted for her the importance of local politics. “I never saw myself as political,” she says. But participating in this work brought her into the world of political activism, especially around the role of schools in society.

In addition to her work with NAKASEC, Jewel partnered with former Annandale High student and 2021 Peace Awards Recipient, Jimmy Lee, to create the Annandale High School Equity Team. From there, Jewel was asked to serve as a Student Equity Ambassador Lead for the school system, where they worked with students across Fairfax County to increase equity in schools.

The equity team that they had established was replicated throughout the public school system.  Now, as the school’s Student Equity Lead, Jewel says, “The best part is watching high school students become community leaders and find ways to make their voices heard and then seeing their ideas be implemented to create positive changes.”