seeds of change
Four young leaders making an impact
Words by Leif Utne
ROSA PARKS WAS NOT A HERO. LET ME REPHRASE THAT. ROSA PARKS WAS NOT A SUPERHERO.
She was not just a lone seamstress who refused to go to the back of the bus one day, spontaneously sparking the movement to overturn Jim Crow. Parks was a committed civil rights activist, a secretary of the local NAACP chapter who had been involved for 12 years. She was part of an organized movement ready to spring into action whenever an opportunity arose to challenge racial oppression.
Our hyper-individualistic, celebrity-obsessed culture loves a good superhero story. But that’s not how social change happens. Real social progress is made, as Margaret Mead said, by “small groups of thoughtful, committed citizens” who toil together in common cause, building community among like-minded people and forging coalitions with allies, which grow into movements that can demand change.
The point is: everyone can be a changemaker. It’s not easy. But it’s also not that hard. It just takes work, hope, tenacity, a little courage, and the patience to keep showing up—at meetings, potlucks, rallies and fundraisers—and speaking out on the issues you care about—from the student council to Congress, the TEDx stage to TikTok.
Rosa Parks was an ordinary human being, like the rest of us, who got deeply involved and did the hard work to make a difference on an issue she cared about. The four young people profiled here get that. We’re sharing their stories, not to show how extraordinary they are, but rather to encourage them to keep learning and growing as leaders, and to inspire readers (of any age) to stand up, speak out and make a difference.
GUYLAND CHARLES
CONFRONTING RACIAL INJUSTICE
Often, it’s when conflict arises that new leaders emerge. For Guyland Charles, it was at a march across Bremerton’s Warren Avenue Bridge in June 2020, a few days after George Floyd’s murder, where the shy then 15-year-old first grabbed a bullhorn and led the crowd in a rousing chorus of “Black lives matter!” Charles went on to lead several other protests around Kitsap County that summer.
The Bremerton High School senior, now 17, considers that his first activist experience. But the seeds were planted years earlier, both at home and by his mentor Akuyea Karen Vargas. “My mom always told me to look for ways to make things better for the people around me,” he recalls. In 2018, Charles traveled with Vargas as part of the Living Life Leadership program to a conference in Minnesota, where he met several Nobel Peace Prize laureates who inspired him with their stories of working for peace around the world.
Charles continues to develop his leadership skills as president of his school’s Black Student Union and track team captain, and was honored with a 2021 Kitsap County Council for Human Rights youth award for his work on racial justice. He plans to major in business at Olympic College and hopes to become a mentor to other youth. “I want to be someone people can look up to. I want to inspire others to make change.”
GIULIETTA “GIGI” HENDRICKSON
PROMOTING GLOBAL ACCESS TO HEALTH
Confronting bigotry led Gigi Hendrickson to get involved in social justice. In the summer before eighth grade, she recalls, a close friend developed “a peculiar obsession with swastikas.” Her mother gave Hendrickson (who is Jewish) a copy of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night, so she could fully understand the severity of antisemitism. That fall, she returned to Woodward Middle School with a new fire. Working with teacher Brandi Bispham, Hendrickson and friends launched a new club called the Ally Group, dedicated to confronting hatred in all its forms.
Now a rising senior at Bainbridge High School, Hendrickson (17) is focused on a different kind of injustice: unequal access to healthcare in the developing world. Hendrickson heads the Global Health Club, the local chapter of Partners in Health Engage, a global organization founded by legendary human rights activist Dr. Paul Farmer. This school year, the club has raised over $14,000 to support a maternal teaching hospital in Sierra Leone and promote Dr. Farmer's message that health is a universal human right.
Hendrickson is equally passionate about the need for more tolerance and communication across political divides. “It’s a blessing to have someone question you on your root beliefs,” she says. “This feeling of discomfort is how we grow. If someone says something that pisses you off, listen and learn or listen and school them.”
NHI’YEEMAH FRANCOIS
LIFTING EVERY VOICE
Another young leader who first found her activist voice on the Warren Avenue Bridge two summers ago is Nhi’yeemah Francois (14). A trained gospel singer, Francois is no stranger to using her voice. She credits her mother Crystal and mentor Akuyea Karen Vargas with giving her the confidence to speak out against injustice and on behalf of her peers.
Since the summer of 2020, Francois says, society has made some progress on racial justice, but it’s been limited. During a basketball game she attended last fall at another school in North Kitsap, the opponents’ fans hurled racial slurs at her and her schoolmates. “It’s kind of like two steps forward, one step back.”
Fortunately, says Francois, racism isn’t the biggest problem at the highly-diverse Mountain View Middle School in Bremerton, where she is finishing eighth grade. Instead, most of the issues she spoke out about as student council president this year were a bit more pedestrian. Like what? Truancy, for one. “A lot of kids are annoyed that some kids keep skipping class,” she says. Or that perennial student council favorite: lobbying administrators for better toilet paper.
Knowing how much progress has already been made for fairness and justice gives Francois hope for the future. “If we work together, we can accomplish anything.”
MERRILL KEATING
ADVANCING GIRLS IN STEM
Many adults have “write a book” on their bucket list. Merrill Keating had already written and published three by the age of 12. And she was just getting started.
Now 17, Keating began teaching coding at age 10. She has since hosted two TEDx events and several conferences, founded two organizations focused on promoting women and girls in STEM, lobbied Congress, graduated Bainbridge High School in two years, and is finishing her sophomore year at the University of Washington, where she is majoring in mechanical engineering.
Even with her long list of achievements, Keating is “a reluctant leader.” She takes pains to deflect attention from herself and keep the spotlight instead on the women and girls she supports through Girls Ignited and The Power of 100 Girls. “I feel more proud of the girls and women who are empowered to overcome the odds, and who are claiming their rightful place in the ecosystem. If I’ve inspired just one of them, that’s great.”
At a time when it’s so easy to despair about the state of the world, Keating remains optimistic. “It sounds schmaltzy, but I believe in the basic goodness of human beings. Our youth give me hope. And I tend to think that ultimately love is the answer. So I put one foot in front of the other with intention and keep an eye out for the magic.”
DO YOU KNOW A YOUNG CHANGEMAKER WHO LIVES ON THE WEST SOUND? SHARE THEIR STORY WITH US VIA THIS FORM, OR EMAIL US AT editor@tidelandmag.com.
