2014-2015: Alex Cady, Senior

Alex Cady is working to create a community of peace and inclusion at his school in several different ways. As a Student Ambassador, Alex welcomes new students, guides them through their schedules, and helps them feel more comfortable.

As a Peer Mediator, Alex attended the Peace It Together summit at George Mason University in 2013 and 2014. An active participant in the peer mediation class, he helped establish their mission, “Small Actions, Big Changes,” which emphasizes the ways in which small actions can lead to major changes in the school climate. Alex was also instrumental in starting Make a Change Day, on which students are encouraged to sit with different people at lunch. Alex hopes that this event will help break down cliques and encourage a more inclusive experience in the cafeteria.

Another of Alex’s passions is integrating special needs students into the school community. He is a Teacher’s Assistant in the Adaptive Physical Education class and an active participant in Buddies Club, a school organization in which general education students interact with special needs students at monthly social events. Last summer, Alex worked full-time with a young autistic boy in the community.

Peer Mediation Teacher Kelly Krek summarizes, “Our school has been truly blessed by having Alex as a member of our community. He has been THE force in improving the WSHS climate, and his work and passion will enable more positive change in years to come.”

Alex intends to continue his pursuit of peace throughout his life. He is passionate about seeing the nation’s bullying problem come to an end and is working on a post-secondary plan that will enable him to continue with this work after high school.

2015-2016: Bennett Shoop, Senior

Bennett Shoop is dedicated to making the world safer for people who feel unprotected. Having struggled with depression and unkind treatment from others, Bennett wants to help people avoid some of the hard times he has gone through.

Bennett's introduction to student activism began in the summer of 10th grade when he attended a camp run by the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League. This experience sparked his passion and taught him how to work effectively for social justice. He returned to West Springfield and began working to raise awareness of the concerns of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, plus sexuality minority (LGBTQ+) students. He is currently president of the Gender and Sexuality Alliance at his school.

Selected for the class in peer mediation, Bennett works with students to resolve conflicts. He has also helped start initiatives such as West Springfield Day of Silence and the Speak Up FCPS Twitter Campaign. The Day of Silence is a national effort to increase awareness of the ways in which LGBTQ+ people have been silenced. Two hundred West Springfield students participated in the 2015 Day of Silence. The Twitter Campaign encouraged people to vote for school board members sympathetic to LGBTQ+ concerns.

Bennett has had the opportunity to speak to the Fairfax County Public School Board and Administration about LGBTQ+ rights and the Family Life Education curriculum. His school counselor, Vanessa Hunter, says, “In my career as a School Counselor, I have never met a student like Bennett Shoop. His courage, passion, determination, and knowledge of the world around him are very inspiring to me…Bennett is one of those students you never forget meeting.”

2016-2017: Rodney Wrice, Senior, and Audrey Wever, Junior

It all started when Rodney Wrice saw a YouTube video called Throw Shine by 3 Musketeers. The video showed a shy boy befriending a new girl in school by giving her a candy bar. When Rodney showed the video to his friend, Audrey Wever, they decided, “Let’s do something like that at West Springfield.”

It was shortly before the presidential election, and feelings were running high at the school. As Audrey said, “Everyone was coming to school with his or her parents’ opinions, and no one was really listening to anyone.”

Rodney and Audrey bought several boxes of candy bars and put sticky notes on them with encouraging messages and asked people to take a picture and post it on an anonymous Twitter account, @WSHS_ThrowShine, they had set up. They began to sneak around the school, secretly leaving candy bars wherever they could. They came in early and stayed late, leaving candy bars on desks, stuck in backpacks, and tucked into corners for people to find. After a while the Mars Corporation heard of their campaign and sent them cases of 3 Musketeer candy bars so they could continue to give them to students.

Audrey and Rodney agree that it was fun to do this in secret, and to put some positive energy into their schoolmates’ days. Rodney quotes William E. Gladstone as saying, “We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then our world will know the blessings of peace.”

Career Center Specialist Tisa Frederick summarizes, “By the efforts of these two students our school now has a new attitude of how we treat one another, and instead of throwing hate, we throw shine.”

2018-2019: Laura Kirk, Senior

Laura Kirk she was energized by both the election in 2016 and the Women’s March in 2017, and she feels passionate about making the world a better place. The 2017 election pushed her into action when she learned that a neighbor, Kathy Tran, was running for the Virginia House of Delegates. Laura interned on the campaign, spending 200 hours knocking on doors and talking with voters. She also recruited and trained volunteers and planned events. She feels good thinking that Kathy Tran won the election, due in part to her efforts.

After the Parkland shooting in 2018, Laura joined with students from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia to form the DMV chapter of Students Demand Action. The chapter now has more than 500 members. She serves as a co-president, organizes events to connect students with legislators, and recruits and trains volunteers to lobby their legislators. In addition, she organizes town halls, school walkouts, marches, and vigil - all in an effort to bring awareness to and help reduce gun violence.

Laura is also co-president of the Young Democrats. To demonstrate that not all things are partisan, the Young Democrats joined with the Young Conservatives during the government shutdown in January to prepare and serve a dinner for furloughed government employees and their families.

2019-2020: Salwa Zahid, Senior

Salwa Zahid is the co-founder and President of the Spartans for War Victims club. On a recent trip to visit her family in Afghanistan, Salwa witnessed first-hand the harsh conditions of internally displaced persons (refugees in their own country, driven from their homes by war). She saw children without enough warm clothing, children collecting the ends of bread loaves to sell to crumb factories, and families not able to send their children to school.

When Salwa and her sister (also a student at West Springfield) returned to Virginia, they decided to start the club Spartans for War Victims at their school. The group, which now has about 30 members, does fundraising, raises awareness, conducts food and clothing drives, and collects hygiene and school supplies to send to areas of need. They coordinate delivery of supplies with other agencies and volunteers. The group's Twitter page, (@swv_wshs), has a video showing children at the Charai Qambar refugee camp in Kabul, receiving winter clothes donated by West Springfield students.

Salwa points out that there is no shortage of places around the world where war has damaged peoples’ lives. Right now, the club has focused its efforts in

Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. But, as Salwa says, “No conflict should be ignored. We should try our best to help end the conflict, help the civilians affected by the conflict, and promote peace. Work for peace is noble.”

Salwa speaks five languages: English, Pashto, Dari, Spanish and Arabic (though she describes her Arabic as “iffy”). She expects to continue her activities in college. She wants to make a direct difference in peoples’ lives and plans to study international development.