2013-2014: Brooke Inglese, Senior

Brooke Inglese first demonstrated her commitment to working for peace in her sophomore year when she established the McLean High School Amnesty Human Rights Club, with the goal of “increasing awareness of human rights abuses, both locally and globally.”

The Amnesty Human Rights Club has 36 members who meet every month or two to discuss an issue chosen by Brooke. Topics have included Syrian refugees in Jordan and Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Brooke plays a leadership role in fundraising activities for the club’s contributions to Amnesty International including participation in a five-kilometer ‘Run for Rights’ in Arlington last fall and soliciting donations at tables outside area stores. The members of the club also collected $350 for the ‘Pennies for Peace’ project to provide school supplies for impoverished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A certificate and note of thanks from the Central Asia Institute commended the club on being “active participants in the creation of global peace.”

Brooke is also Head Service Coordinator of the Saint Luke Church High School Service Organization that provides aid to the homeless by collecting and distributing food and that endeavors to create understanding and empathy for the plight of homeless people.

2014-2015: Soobin Wang, Senior

Three years ago Soobin happened to read a notice about a student-run advocacy organization, Teaching Peace Initiative (TPI). The group was formed when students attending a conference at the Annapolis Peace and Justice Center realized that students learn much more about war heroes than about leaders who have worked for peace. TPI works to teach elementary and middle school students about the values of peace and nonviolence through themes of conflict resolution, anti-bullying, and acceptance of differences.

Since her sophomore year, Soobin has been a Regional Executive Director for the Teaching Peace Initiative. She has gradually built up her school’s branch, and there are now twenty volunteers at McLean High School working with her to visit area schools. They have modified the TPI curriculum to include age-appropriate games, skits, drawings, and songs to encourage children to accept differences and peacefully resolve conflicts.

Soobin reports that the students in the schools they visit have been enthusiastic about the lessons and willing to participate in discussions. They even continue with the activities on their own, and eagerly await the next visit of the TPI team.

Work with TPI has encouraged Soobin to be hopeful about the possibility of peaceful solutions to larger conflicts in society. She notes that “kids are open to change, open to learning how to solve fights with friends, and open to taking a peaceful approach.” Soobin hopes this awareness will help the children become thoughtful leaders in the future.

Soobin plans to continue her studies at Brown University next fall. While there, she hopes to become active in a service club or project which focuses on peaceful resolutions of problems.

2015-2016: Michelle Ma, Senior

During her junior year, Michelle helped another student start a Mclean chapter of IDEAL (Inform, Discuss, Enlighten, Acknowledge, Learn), a student discussion group founded to encourage listening and sharing on current topics in the news. The purpose of these conversations is to bridge the polarization which so often characterizes public discussion. Under Michelle’s leadership, students meet each week to discuss topics such as gun control and the Paris attacks, seeking ways to promote peaceful solutions to violence. Through these discussions students deepen their understandings of different perspectives and grow in the belief that they can work together for change.

Michelle also founded Speak Up, an organization committed to providing free public speaking education to middle and inner-city schools across the US. Michelle organized other members of the Mclean student community to meet with students at Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax County and Stanton Elementary School in Washington, DC, helping them to become excited and confident about speaking in front of peers with activities ranging from discussion circles to mock career interviews. Speak Up has now spread to nine different cities in the US, including San Francisco and New York City. Michelle shares information about the program on her website www.thespeakupinitiative.com.

The IDEAL program and the Speak Up initiative have made important contributions to Mclean students. Speak Up has also helped students at other schools. Career Center Specialist Dawn Allison writes that “Michelle exemplifies the principles of the Student Peace Award… She doesn’t just participate in activities that are designed to promote conflict resolution -- she dreams them up, organizes them herself, and works to make them successful. Her efforts reach far beyond the school walls.”

2016-2017: Josh Leong and Sam Gollob, Juniors

Josh Leong and Sam Gollob learned about Herman Wainggai, a human rights advocate from West Papua, a Pacific island bordering Papua New Guinea. West Papua has been controlled by the Indonesian military for 40 years, resulting in brutal treatment of the native people. Herman Wainggai received harsh treatment as a political prisoner before escaping in a small boat to Australia. He is currently a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a visiting scholar at George Mason University, advocating for UN intervention to address the suffering of the people in West Papua.

Deeply touched by the story of Herman Wainggai’s struggles, Josh and Sam decided to make a film especially for teens. Noting that news spreads rapidly to this audience through social media, they considered the most effective way to share his story to resonate with others their age. They decided to create a 10-minute documentary film, Herman Wainggai: A Hidden Genocide, (https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZwbMgzej1k4) in which he describes his experiences.

Herman Wainggai: A Hidden Genocide premiered in April 2016 at the Garifuna Indigenous Film Festival in Los Angeles. Sam and Herman Wainggai were in the audience, along many influential policymakers, filmmakers, indigenous people, and representatives from human rights organizations and humanitarian campaigns. Although their primary goal was to support Herman Wainggai’s campaign for West Papuan independence, Josh and Sam also hoped to motivate other teens to look outside their affluent community and to encourage them to help people who suffer in other parts of the world.

Sam and Josh plan to continue their activism in future careers: Sam as a journalist and Josh as a filmmaker.

2017-2018: Bryce Liquerman, Junior

Bryce Liquerman has been coaching for the past five years both a softball and soccer Special Olympics team, recruiting many friends from his own high school soccer and tennis teams to help him train the athletes. Bryce feels that the teams help to reduce the stigma of people with disabilities and enrich the lives of all who make friends with the athletes.  He is also a peer leader in McLean High School’s Sources of Strength group, which helps fellow students deal with the pressures and anxieties of school and home. He also serves as a BigMac, helping freshman assimilate into high school life. He is a leader of a Mcelan High School group to raise money for cancer research and has personally raised $20,000.

2018-2019: Neha Rana, Senior

Neha Rana serves as the Chief Executive Officer for the Speak Up Initiative, an organization that brings free public speaking education to children from low-income families. Every week Neha and other members of the group from McLean High School work with students in third through sixth grades at Graham Road Elementary School in Fairfax to help them speak up about political and social issues. Neha and other members of the Speak Up Initiative also visit Stanton Elementary School in Anacostia several times each year to help organize discussions and science fairs.

Neha serves as the McLean representative to the Fairfax County Student Human Rights Commission. She has promoted inclusivity in schools, working on behalf of Sikhs, African Americans, Muslims, East Asians, Hispanics, and sexual minorities.

Neha is also active in politics. She is the Fairfax + Arlington Chapter Head for Rise to Run, a grass-roots organization that encourages young girls to participate in politics and to run for political office in the future. She helps to set up panels, conferences, and other events for concerned citizens and politicians. During the fall election campaign, she helped Virginia Democrats with phone and door-to-door canvassing.

After the Parkland shooting, Neha and three others organized a walkout at McLean High School to support the nationwide campaign against gun violence. She then helped organize a region-wide school walkout that included students from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

2019-2020: Sarah Gu, Senior

For the last five years, Sarah Gu has spent her summers visiting her family in Shexian, China. While there she started offering Chinese children free lessons in the English language and in current affairs. Sarah draws on her own experience in Chinese education as an elementary school student in Shanghai to help her understand cultural differences in education practices. She says that these insights help her plan lessons that encourage students to feel confident and willing to participate in class.

The summer lessons became increasingly popular, and grew into an organization, The Windows. Sarah now includes friends from the US to help teach children between the ages of 9 and 18. She says that this past summer, 300 students participated, bringing the total number of children served to over 600. A former student, now enrolled in a university, worked as a teacher with The Windows organization during her summer vacation, and Sarah hopes more students will return after further education.

Sarah also works with the Speak Up Initiative, and she currently serves as its CEO. The organization was founded by 2016 Student Peace Award Recipient Michelle Ma and is dedicated to promoting public speaking skills in students in local high-poverty schools.

Sarah plans to continue her work in education. She says her goal is to help spread affordable and high-quality education to all children. Laura Venos, a career center specialist, writes, “Sarah is a passionate and ambitious student, dedicated to furthering the universal human right to education.”