2007 Youth Scholar — Alexia Welch, Lawrence High School, Lawrence, Kan.

Alexia Welch

“Lexi is creative, dedicated to civil liberties, and hard working … What is also remarkable is that she has been so effective at getting people to listen to her positions and actually effect change.”
— Leslie Bissell,
Board Secretary,
ACLU of Kansas and
Western Missouri

Learn about the other 2007 Youth Activist Scholarship winners > >

When Alexia found out that military recruiters had her personal information and that the No Child Left Behind Act mandated that public schools provide this information, she began extensive research on students’ rights. She produced a “news story” on the topic for her media broadcast class that turned into a documentary. She interviewed the school superintendent, principals, a local recruiter, and her congressional representatives, among others. The project was covered by local media, and the story spawned community dialogue and changes to her school’s privacy policy.

Alexia wrote and produced a public service announcement for the Douglas County, Kansas AIDS Project, using a comedic approach to educate teens about safe sex and how to practice it inexpensively and responsibly.

Through a school essay that was aired on Kansas public radio, Alexia has made suggestions about how to improve on the traditional classroom approach in her school, which she thought should be more related to “real life” and more inclusive of social skills and street smarts. Many teachers said that the essays by Alexia and her peers affected their teaching styles.

Alexia also helped organize a benefit to raise awareness and money to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Alexia’s Personal Essay:

“Changes to Make”

I am currently a senior at Lawrence High School in Lawrence Kansas. I grew up in the small town of Paola Kansas, which gave the mindset that students were students and minorities, subject to the rule of their superiors and teachers, and nothing more. When I moved to Lawrence though, with the help of some superiors, I learned that not only do I have a voice that can and should be heard, but that I can also speak for those who cannot.

During my high school years, I have personally experienced lots of things that I am sure my peers are experiencing also. Seeing how no one really seems to voice these things though, and with the help of a teacher, I realized that I could get messages out there and show others that they can do the same.

Most of my recent work has been through a media class at my high schooL I remember on the first day of this class in August 2005, we were told to question everything, even our teachers, the media, ourselves, our habits, the nation, and the world. Our assignments were given to us with brief guidelines, just to pick something important to us.

In my junior year, I started with some smaller projects targeted for teens. I noticed that our school, along with many others, does not talk about practicing safe sex nor provide the resources for teens to practice them, instead they promote practicing abstinence. For many teens, abstinence works in theory, but sadly not always in reality. In reality, some teens do intend to practice safe sex, but safe sex costs money (condoms, birth control, etc) and means taking responsibility. I contacted the Douglas County AIDS Project, found at least fifteen locations around town where free variety style condoms were located, then wrote and produced a Public Service Announcement with a comedic approach, informing teens about safe sex and how they could practice it inexpensively and responsibly. The school, of course, would not air it on the school radio, but the Douglas County AIDS Project and local radio thought it was a great idea, encouraged it, and offered to air it.

Also in my junior year, our class chose to record a compilation of media essays about the experience of high school. Some students chose to talk about sports, others talked about grades, homework, extracurricular activities, teacher and parent expectations, and so on. My approach, however, was from an appreciative perspective of how I do not hate school, how I respect my teachers, and that I really do enjoy learning, but I tried to point out how the traditional classroom consists of twenty-five cold hard desks and twenty-five identical textbooks, a teacher preaching from the front, and twenty-five pencils scribbling notes on a piece of paper that they will all throw after the test. I questioned how this would provide my peers and I for future success. All this teaches us is to not question anything and to just accept things as they are. I suggested more real life approaches to learning, I suggested a difference in real education and school education, and asked how math and science will provide our generation with social skills and street smarts, two things that are also needed for future success. I suggested that most of the time, those who are affected most by schools; teenagers are the ones least likely to have a say in what is taught. Our essays were aired on the Kansas Public Radio twice, and afterwards, many teachers discussed how our essays had directly affected them their teaching styles, and policies.

The experience of doing the projects helped me understand that not only do I have a voice that can and should be heard, but that I can also speak for those who cannot. At the beginning of my senior year, August 2006, I helped a friend’s band organize a benefit to raise awareness and money to stop the genocide in Dark. The benefit was an all day, all ages, outdoor event with over fifteen musical acts, food, and discussions about Darfur I promoted the benefit by making posters and fliers, selling tickets, taking donations, providing food and transportation, and even running a table at the event. We raised over $3,000 that was donated to the Genocide Intervention Network.

I also enrolled in the Advanced Media Broadcasting class at school. My project started out as what was supposed to be a five minute news story to present to my class. My topic was military recruitment in high schools. For me, this is an important issue facing teens, similar to other issues, that most teens remain silent about despite how much it affects them This idea came to me the previous summer when I got a letter from “my high school recruiter” offering me $100 in cash to enlist with him. But our high school does not have an ROTC program, nor do we have Army recruiters employed by the school. So how did “my high school recruiter” get my information?

I started by interviewing principals, a local recruiter, Congressman Dennis Moore, the superintendent, and others about recruiter’s access to directory information. I was told that No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to provide the military with this information. Upon closer investigation though, I also learned that parents have the right to opt out of releasing their child’s information, and that the school must make this apparent. The school said that they did do this, and that the information was very accessible, but when I went to the office to ask about opting out, no one there could help me or even knew what I was talking about. I looked through old enrollment packets, finding one sheet dated two years prior. This is when my classmates, teacher, and I realized that this was a bigger issue than we thought. To top that, we also learned that if a parent actually realized they had the option to opt out and chose to do so, that their child’s information in addition to not being included in the school directory would also be removed from the yearbook, honor roll, newspaper publications, educational institutions, and prospective employers. Parents were not being told this. Parents also weren’t told that the directory not only included their child’s names, addresses, and phone numbers, but also sex, age, birth date, parent’s phone numbers, grade, and sometimes even height and weight. They also weren’t being told that the school directory is considered a public directory and could be available to absolutely anyone who wished to obtain a copy. I even went so far as to make surveys to present to parents at parent/teacher conferences to see just how many parents were actually aware of what was going on. The results completely supported what our class was finding out and what the school was arguing. The local news heard about what our class has learned and came to interview my partner Sarah and I. Eventually, FOX 4 from Kansas City covered the story, along with many news sources across America. Currently, our principal and the superintendent told Sarah and I that we could rewrite the form that is included in the enrollment packet, and that the school would begin to make frequent announcements about student options. The form will now allow parents to opt out of the directory, still providing them with the option to choose whether or not to be included in other school related activities.

Our goal right now is to finish our news story, which has ultimately become a documentary that has taken almost an entire semester. We hope to have the documentary aired locally. Hopefully leading other teens to question their school policies and to better inform parents of their options, and to get everyone to ask the big question; how does this act involve bettering education?

I have done many small things such as protesting the war with Iraq and soldiers not coming home, animal rights, practicing the Day of Silence in support of homosexuality, and also protested Fred Phelps when he came to protest The Laramie Project, a play that our high school was performing, which are all issues the either face teens or affect them. I’m sure I could continue to list things I have done, but in brief, the previously listed acts are the ones I’m most proud of. I do not believe that whether an act is big or small should be a determining factor in justice, but more or less the reasons behind the act and the change that one person or many can make, for themselves and for others, whether directly or widespread.