Jesse Hagopian teaches history and is the co-adviser to the Black Student Union at Garfield High School, the site of the historic boycott of the MAP test in 2013.
Jesse is an associate editor of the acclaimed Rethinking Schools magazine, is a founding member of Social Equality Educators (SEE), was recipient of the 2012 Abe Keller Foundation award for “excellence and innovation in peace education,” and was received the 2013 Secondary Teacher of Year award by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.
Young people are leading the fight for justice in our schools. Let’s recognize their power. Beginning Wednesday, May 21 through June 11, 2025, nominations will be accepted for the Black Education Matters Student Activist (BEMSAA) award. The BEMSAA organizing committee encourages educators, families, students, and community organizers to nominate a deserving student for the award today!
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in King County who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, class exploitation, and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, over 20 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here are the instructions for applying for the award:
King County area students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1,000 award to a deserving student in the King County area who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice and against systemic or structural racism. Students can nominate themselves or be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent, or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee:
Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle Public School.
A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, class exploitation, and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions: Nominees must submit required materials by June 11, 2025, to be considered for the award.
Applicant or nominee name and other requested information (see form).
Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available.
In addition to the information in the form, submit 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 and not more than 700 words, describing the nominee’s work, why it is deserving of recognition, and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future.
There are no restrictions on how the nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award board is proud to announce the 2024 winners: Jay and Anya Souza-Ponce! These two exceptional young people have done extraordinary work in the struggle against systemic racism and injustice. The BEMSAA provides a $1,000 award, public recognition of their work, and connection to a community of other young changemakers.
Fellow student activist Miles Hagopian said of Jay, “He has been working tirelessly the last few years to put on educational events for the community around race, class, and imperialism. I have learned so much from him!” Longtime educator and organizer Jon Greenberg said, of Souza-Ponce, “Anya is literally changing the world. And she’s doing it now…Anya Souza-Ponce is not just the consummate student-activist, she is the consummate person: intelligent, dedicated, considerate, and extremely capable.”
Anya Souza-Ponce, is a senior at Ballard High School and a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Her leadership in struggles for racial and social justice have been vital to the youth movement in Seattle. Her efforts include working to ensure Black Lives Matter at School Demands are implemented in the Seattle Schools, and providing leadership in the struggle to pass Seattle Public Schools Board Policy 1250, which puts youth on the Seattle School Board. Seattle Public School students are now enjoying their second year of education with students on the school board dais – in part because of Anya’s efforts! Anya has also lent her talents to the struggle for more mental health services in the schools, abolishing the Highly Capable Cohort program, and ending gun violence targeting Black and Brown communities.
Jay and Anya Souza-Ponce have only begun their work for a better world, but it’s already clear that we will get there sooner with these two dynamic young people.
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in the Seattle Public Schools who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
This year’s winners will be publicly recognized at the Champions of Change All Star Basketball game at Climate Pledge Arena. Over the past several years, over 20 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
The BEMSAA board is Jesse Hagopian, Rita Green, Donte Felder, and Ayva Thomas. Last year’s BEMSAA winners were:
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here, then, are the instructions for applying for the award:
King Country area students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1,000 package to a deserving student in the King County area who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against systemic or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee: • Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle public school. • A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions: Nominees must submit required material by June 5, 2023, to be considered for the award. • Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below. • Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available. • In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future. • Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
Joyin Akinola at the Student Justice Collective Conference
Announcing the 2023 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) winners: Marta Sisay and Joyin Akinola. These two exceptional young people have done extraordinary work in the struggle against structural racism in education. The BEMSAA provides a $1,000 award, public recognition, and connection to a community of other young changemakers.
“Joyin has displayed an unwavering commitment to justice utilizing an intersectional lens,” educator Renna Harb explained. “She understands the nuances and interconnectedness of race, class, and gender, and actively works against oppressive institutional systems by using her voice as a call to action.”
Joyin has been an active member of the Student Justice Collective where she helped develop and facilitate a workshop for her high school peers on the importance of educational diversity at Northshore’s annual Student Justice Conference.
In addition, Joyin has organized with her peers to ensure that Black History Month was properly recognized and made relevant to students’ lives. Joyin has not only worked to educate her peers about issues of race and social justice, but she has advocated for change in her school district, including testifying to the Northshore School Board in support of racial equity policies.
Marta Sisay’s work in the Seattle Public Schools has demonstrated, once again, the power of young people’s activism. When the tragic shooting at Ingraham High School stole the life of a student this school year, Marta Sisay grieved. But then she took action. She understood that powerful forces in the city and the school district would use the violent act, not to flood the schools with school psychologists and wraparound services, but to call for reinstating police.
Marta quickly joined the Seattle Student Union (SSU) in calling for more counselors, not cops, at Ingraham and across the district. She attended organizing meetings at her school and with the SSU to make her voice heard on this issue. Less than a week after the death at Ingraham, Marta played a vital role in organizing a student walkout from schools all around Seattle to protest gun violence and demand increase emotional health supports at school. Hundreds of students left their schools in the middle of the day and rallied in front of City Hall.
Then during Seattle’s Black Lives Matter at School week of action, Marta joined the organizing effort to ensure the public schools remained free of police. At a panel held at Roosevelt High School during the week of action, Marta said, “When there are police in schools, you don’t know their intentions. There are bad cops out there and you don’t know what they are going to do and I think that’s just going to increase violence and make the students of color feel unsafe.”
Marta Sisay and Joyin Akinola have only begun their work for a better world, but it’s already clear that we will get their sooner with these two dynamic young people.
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in the King Country area who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, over 20 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
Jesse Hagopian founded the award with funding he received after he was assaulted by a Seattle police officer and won a settlement. The BEMSAA board includes the Rita Green, Donte Felder, and Ayva Thomas. Last year’s winners were:
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here, then, are the instructions for applying for the award.
King Country area students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1,000 package to a deserving student in the King County area who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against systemic or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee: • Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle public school. • A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions: Nominees must submit required material by June 5, 2023, to be considered for the award. • Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below. • Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available. • In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future. • Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
Kaley Duong and Alexis Mburu knew there was something wrong with school, only it took them a while to find the right words, to know how to phrase them, and to channel their innate leadership ability. In middle school, both joined racial equity clubs that began to illuminate aspects of the issues they were seeing or facing. In high school, both began speaking out more frequently, organizing, and building community around taking action to address the ills of a system they were still in. During the 2021–2022 school year — when Duong was a senior and Mburu a junior — both were unstoppable, working tirelessly for racial equity in schools while organizing, participating in, and speaking at events that impacted thousands.
In June, Duong and Mburu were both recognized for the school years they had, becoming the seventh recipients of the annual Black Education Matters Student Activist Awards (BEMSAA). They were awarded $1,000 each, and join an impressive list of Seattle student activists who preceded them. At an award ceremony press release, BEMSAA Director Jesse Hagopian called Duong and Mburu “dynamic student activists” who had “contributed greatly to the struggle against institutional racism in the schools.” BEMSAA board member Rita Green called them “great choices” based on their personal growth and work toward policy change.
In recent conversations with the Emerald, Duong and Mburu shared some of their recent accomplishments and spoke at length about the paths they took to arrive at equity in education work.
In June, Duong helped guide a Teach the Truth protest through the streets of the Chinatown-International District, megaphone in hand. The secretary of the NAACP Youth Council (NYC), she helped plan the annual Martin Luther King Day Workshop event in January. Duong participated in the annual ethnic studies Praxis Youth Organizing Conference, and was a panelist at the Washington Ethnic Studies Now (WAESN) April assembly. She was also a panelist at a handful of events designed to inform teacher candidates about issues of racial equity, and taught a workshop at the Unity in the Community event at Nathan Hale High School. Duong also was part of a group of students selected to train Seattle Public Schools board members ahead of Policy No. 1250, which was approved in May and which entails students sitting on the board starting in fall.
Along with two past BEMSAA award winners Rena Mateja Walker Burr (2020) and Mia Dabney (2021), Duong spoke with board members about how to meaningfully engage students. They spoke about how to honor student perspectives, got board members to open up and be vulnerable about their own experiences as students, and gave them homework to create norms for holding themselves accountable to students.
About the experience, Duong said: “Talking to school board members beyond just asking them about what we want, being able to teach people who have power over our education, was mind-blowing. It was a really beautiful thing getting to know some of the school board members on a personal level. At the end, all three of us [Duong, Burr, and Dabney] got really emotional. I know I wanted to cry hearing the feedback that we got from them. Some of them said they’ve gone to so many trainings over the past few years and this has been one of the most memorable. It made a huge impact on me and made me realize that my voice really does have an impact and can make a difference.”
Mburu, whose first article in Real Change, “Stop punishing students, because your thoughts and prayers are not enough,” ran in June, has written, co-written, or been featured in more than a dozen articles for the South Seattle Emerald. She was a member of the Bridge Committee in Tukwila, and is working to develop a series of student panels at Foster High School next year. Like Duong, she has been on various panels for candidate educators, and also helped organize the WAESN youth workshop for their annual assembly. The vice president of the NYC, Mburu leads an internship program at the Seattle MLK Coalition. She has also helped organize the Black Lives Matter at School week, and for two years running, Mburu has emceed one of its signature events: the Young, Gifted and Black Talent Show.
Mburu highlighted the levity surrounding the Young, Gifted and Black Talent Show as what makes that experience stand out for her among her other accomplishments: “I really liked that event because it’s fun. I think that’s sometimes missing when we do advocacy work. It’s very, you know … we’re talking about oppression, and it’s very high-level thinking, and we’re reimagining society and that is great, but all the time, and it kind of takes a toll on you. You just need to have fun, you need to celebrate Black joy and you need to celebrate liberation in other ways. … And so events that do that are my favorite, the ones that just celebrate and bring people together in unique ways.”
Duong, who went to Meadowdale Elementary, Meadowdale Middle School, and Meadowdale High School, all in Lynnwood, says she was drawn toward activism as the inadequacy of elements of her formal education became more and more difficult to ignore. Here’s her account of the various factors that contributed to her becoming an award-winning activist.
Kaley Duong co-leading the 2022 Teach the Truth rally in the CID. (Photo: Chloe Collyer)
“I think a lot of what drives my passion for seeing change — especially in the education system — is all the experiences that I’ve had in schools where I felt like schools didn’t serve me. [Many educators] would put out that they’re here to serve the students, but I never felt served. All this stuff that my peers and I went through over the years, I think that was a driver for me that things need to change.
“Growing up as a kid, I would be called certain derogatory terms by white students … even in middle school as well, getting those racist remarks. Seeing that I got no support from those teachers really impacted me. There was even a point when it really just affected my own mental health. Also, seeing my Black and Brown peers getting in trouble while white students were completely doing the same thing, but they don’t get called out for it. Even seeing my own friends get written up for things that are unfair that they didn’t even do. Also, not feeling represented in the curriculum in the classroom is something that was really affecting me. It was just all combining together, and seeing that it never changed.
“I started off in middle school doing a lot of equity work and joining clubs at school, and I continued in high school to join clubs and attend workshops and conferences. I made my own connections, and then I got brought to the Washington NAACP Youth Council (NYC) because I looked at their demands and the things that they fought for and I really wanted to be a part of that. I felt like being a part of NYC has really made me grow as a person, and I think it has been one of the most impactful choices in my life that really shaped how I view things, how I lead, and how I work around activism.
“Once I went to high school, everything was the same except for the fact that I actually felt like I had a voice. I could call out those teachers and talk about it. I had the knowledge or the education of being able to talk it through or being able to talk to someone about it. As a kid, I guess the biggest difference was like I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know the exact words or phrases to stand up for myself.”
Mburu, who attended Showalter Middle School and Foster High School in Tukwila, was always predisposed toward taking leadership roles, but began to realize she could use her talent to address systemic inequity. Here’s the award-winning activist’s account of how she was drawn to activism:
Alexis Mburu at the 2021 MLK Day March. (Photo: Susan Fried)
“I just feel like it’s kind of in me. From a young age (elementary school), I’ve always been a Type A leadership person. I knew that I was a leader, and I wasn’t afraid to sing at assemblies or volunteer to help the PTA with their dances. I was just always doing stuff.
“In middle school, I joined the race and equity club as a seventh grader. I just went to meetings and listened; I wasn’t really involved. The next year, I wanted to be more involved, and Ms. [Erin] Herda was a facilitator. Eighth grade was definitely the year that I just came more into myself; I just remember that year being really great for me as far as school, as far as socially, and all that stuff. Ms. Herda was not even a teacher I actually had, but just someone who saw me and I just connected with her. I would speak at assemblies and she and another teacher, Ms. [Emily] Tran, would take us to the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice Conference. I just was surrounded by good energy, good people.
“And then really another catalyst was COVID. NYC was looking to expand their group, and Ms. Herda put me in an email; I went to the orientation, and from then on it was just like, ‘Okay, this is what I do.’ If I’m not doing this, I don’t feel that there’s anything as purposeful. I love sports. I love doing other things, but I need to advocate for racial equity or gender equity.
“Growing up in Tukwila, I was on the privileged end of the spectrum. I didn’t necessarily feel overt racism. I didn’t feel overt classism or some of the lived experiences that some of my peers have that pushed them into doing this work. Now, thinking back with the knowledge I have, I can see the systemic oppression and I can see the little small things that weren’t right that as a little kid I didn’t understand. … And there’s so much happening on the news every single day. Someone’s being wronged. Some injustice is happening. It’s always going. There’s no time when there isn’t harm being done to people who look like me, or people who are different than me. I feel like subconsciously, even if I wasn’t experiencing it myself, or not seeing it myself, I felt that weight.
“When we would go to the [Showalter] Race & Equity club, and we’d talk about the certain issues happening and current events, it was just a space that I felt I could fit in as far as adding to the conversation, having opinions, having that outlet to filter that part of my brain of always wanting to lead or talk or learn. That was where that kind of came out.”
Duong is heading to Edmonds Community College for a year to get her associate’s degree before attending a four-year university where she is likely to go into a social work program. She’ll be continuing her Leader in Training internship at the Puget Sound Educational Service District.
Mburu says she’ll continue to write and publish her work in the South Seattle Emerald and Real Change, and says she’ll definitely be applying to both Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this fall.
Ari Robin McKennaworked as an educator and curriculum developer in Brooklyn, New York; Douala, Cameroon; Busan, South Korea; Quito, Ecuador; and Seattle, Washington, before settling in South Seattle. He writes about education for the Emerald. Contact him through his website.
Featured Image: Kaley Duong and Alexis Mburu are award-winning youth activists. Photos courtesy of Duong and Mburu.
Starting Sunday, May 1st through Tuesday, May 31st, 2022, nominations will be accepted for the 2022 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA). The BEMSAA organizing committee encourages educators, parents, students, and community organizers to nominate a deserving student for the award today!
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in Seattle/King County region who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, ableism, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, over 20 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
Jesse Hagopian founded the award after he was assaulted by a Seattle police officer in 2015 and won a settlement that he uses to fund the award. In addition, former Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett joined the award committee to give an annual award in the name of his mother, Pennie Bennett. Educators, youth workers, and organizers Rita Green, Donte Felder, and Ayva Thomas serve on the BEMSAA advisory board.
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here, then, are the instructions for applying for the award.
Seattle Public School students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1000 package to a deserving Seattle public school student who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against institutional or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee: • Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle school. • A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, ableism, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions:
Nominees must submit required material by June 7th, 2021, to be considered for the award. • Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below. • Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available. • In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future. • Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
Starting Monday, May 10th through Friday, Monday, June 7th, 2021, nominations will be accepted for the Black Education Matters Student Activist award (BEMSAA). The BEMSAA organizing committee encourages educators, parents, students, and community organizers to nominate a deserving student for the award today!
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in Seattle who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, ableism, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, 17 Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
Jesse Hagopian founded the award after he was assaulted by a Seattle police officer and won a settlement that he uses to fund the award. In addition, former Seattle Sea hawk Michael Bennett joined the award committee to give an annual award in the name of his mother, Pennie Bennett. Educators, youth workers, and organizers Rita Green, Donte Felder, and Ayva Thomas serve on the BEMSAA advisory board.
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here, then, are the instructions for applying for the award.
Seattle Public School students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1000 package to a deserving Seattle public school student who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against institutional or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee: • Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle school. • A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, ableism, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions:
Nominees must submit required material by June 7th, 2021, to be considered for the award. • Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below. • Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available. • In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future. • Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
Seattle, WA: The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) offers a $1000 package to deserving Seattle public school students who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice against institutional racism.
All around the nation young people are joining an uprising for Black Lives. These youth don’t want another person to have to experience what George Floyd, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and so many other Black people have experienced. They also want to build a school system that teaches the truth about Black history and uplifts Black history.
“Here in Seattle we are honoring four of the most dynamic students activists in the struggle for Black lives who have been doing this work for years. I am so proud of this year’s winners of the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award,” said BEMSAA director Jesse Hagopian. “They have all contributed greatly to undoing institutional racism in the schools and the boarder society and have demonstrated brave leadership in struggles for social justice.”
The 2019 award winners are:
Angelina Riley is a Rainier Beach High School student and incoming president of the Seattle King County NAACP Youth Council. Angelina helped write a petition asking the district to no longer allow police in the schools that garnered some 18,000 signatures in a few days and led to the Seattle Public Schools announcement that police would be removed from the schools for a year.
Azure Savage is a queer, trans, Black student graduate of Garfield High School. He is the author of You Failed Us: Students of Color Talk Seattle Schools, an exploration of the experience that students of color have in the schools they attend around the Seattle area. It incorporates direct quotes from interviewed students, as well as the author’s own personal experiences from when they were in elementary school, to now, about to enter their senior year of high school. Azure’s book helped ignite a discussion about combating institutional racism in the Seattle schools. Azure has also organized BLM rallies at Garfield and participated in BLM rallies throughout the city.
Bethel Getu is a Graduate of Garfield High School graduate and senator for the Black Student Union. Bethel served as a student consultant for the forthcoming Young Adult edition of, “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks,” and was an organizer for the “Youth Shall Lead: Seattle Children’s March” where she helped craft demands around ending police violence.
Kidist Habte, is a co-founder of “Black and Brown Minds Matter,” and is a junior at Rainier Beach High School. As Parent Map wrote, “She helped conceive of and organize the group’s inaugural Sept. 4 rally to raise awareness of funding inequities across the district, many of which are caused by the under-projection of school enrollment numbers that results year after year in budget cuts and under-resourcing of Seattle Public Schools serving students in South Seattle.” She also helped organize the petition to remove police from schools that received over 18,000 signatures in a few days and led to the Seattle Public Schools announcement that police would be removed from the schools for a year.
Past award winners have been among the most impactful student leaders in Seattle, including leading mass walkouts against president Trump’s inauguration, leading the successful movement for ORCA transportation cards for Seattle students, leading whole teams to take a knee during the national anthem, launching the NAACP Youth Coalition, leading movements for food justice, and more.
The award was started with funds Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian received in a settlement after suing the Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle when he was wrongfully assaulted with pepper-spray by a Seattle Police officer.
On MLK Day 2015, Jesse Hagopian was pepper sprayed in the face by a Seattle police officer without provocation. The incident occurred not long after Hagopian gave the final speech at the MLK Day community rally. Hagopian is committed to turning that pain into the empowerment of youth for social change.
Some of the 2018 Black Education Matters Student Activist Award winners being congratulated by Linda Sarsour, Pele Bennett, and Michael Bennett. Apply today for the 2020 award.
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award (BEMSAA) gives recognition, support, and a $1,000 award to student leaders in the Seattle Public Schools who demonstrate exceptional leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community. Over the past several years, thirteen Seattle Public Schools students have been honored with the award.
Jesse Hagopian founded the award after he was assaulted by a Seattle police officer and won a settlement. The assault occurred in January of 2015, soon after Jesse gave the final speech at Seattle’s Martin Luther King Day rally. Not long after, Jesse was pepper-sprayed in the face without provocation by an officer of the Seattle Police Department. Jesse was on the phone with his mom at time of the assault, coordinating a ride to his then two-year-old son’s birthday party. The incident was captured on video by an onlooker. Jesse then filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Seattle and the Seattle Police Department and reached a settlement over the incident, using the proceeds to start the “Black Education Matters Student Activist Award.” While Jesse is glad the money from the settlement could be used to support youth activism, he has stated that, “The settlement does not represent justice given that the officer who pepper-sprayed me did not even receive a one-day suspension for the assault.”
For a full list of the previous amazing award winners, please visit the Award Winners page.
Here, then, are the instructions for applying for the award.
Seattle Public School students (or advocates on their behalf) can apply for the Black Education Matters Student Activist Award by filling out this application.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
The Black Education Matters Student Activist Award fund offers a $1000 package to a deserving Seattle public school student who demonstrates exceptional leadership in struggles for social justice, and against institutional or structural racism. Student can nominate themselves, or can be nominated by a friend, teacher, coach, counselor, parent or others.
Criteria for selecting the awardee:
• Any student who has been enrolled for a semester or more in a Seattle public school.
• A student who has shown social justice leadership in struggles against racism—especially with an understanding of the intersections with sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamaphobia, class exploitation and other forms of oppression—within their school or community.
Application instructions: Nominees must submit required material by May 5, 2018, to be considered for the award.
• Applicant or nominee name and other requested information, see below.
• Clippings or links to evidence or stories about the student’s work, if available.
• In addition to the information in the form, send 2 letters of recommendation, each not less than 300 or more than 700 words each, describing the nominee’s work and why it is deserving of recognition and how the student’s leadership qualities may further social justice work in the future.
• Note there are no restrictions for how the Nominee uses the funds obtained through this award.
Black Education Matters 