Social Justice Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jesuit High School held its third annual Social Justice Week March 13-17, 2023. Students voted on the theme for Social Justice Week 2023: Climate Justice. Students moved from awareness to action, not only learning about matters of social justice, but also acquiring tools to be advocates for change in their communities.  

Keynote speaker: Sophia Kianni

Sophia Kianni is an Iranian-American activist studying climate science and health policy at Stanford University. She is the founder and executive director of Climate Cardinals, an international nonprofit with 9,000 volunteers in 40-plus countries working to translate climate information into over 100 languages. She represents the U.S. as the youngest member on the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. 

What does Social Justice Week consist of?

Social Justice Week exercises the head, heart, hand, and voice of each member of the Jesuit High School community. Students will move from awareness to action, not only learning about matters of social justice, but also acquiring tools to be advocates for change in their communities. During the week, students will be able to participate in:

• Three days of presentations, workshops, and actions (students sign up through Canva)
• Community Celebration Assembly
• Mass highlighting the multilingual Jesuit community

More about Social Justice Week

Social Justice Week focuses on collective learning, relationship building, and avenues for advocacy. Each member in our community will partake in workshops, seminars, and creative expressions to learn more about topics of interest. Each year will have a theme, picked by students the year before. The all-school summer reading will also reflect the theme from Social Justice Week. This week allows the Jesuit community to analyze and better understand the ways in which historically, economically, socially, and politically marginalized communities have experienced injustice. In the Ignatian tradition of forming people with and for others, Social Justice Week gives students the opportunity to not only learn about injustice but find ways in which their voices can bring forth change. 

Climate Justice Presentation Topics Include: 

• Sustainability in the Art and Design Industry
• Ocean Acidification: How Climate Change Affects Our Ocean Species
• Sustainable Fashion: What is it and what can we do?
• Urban Regenerative Farming & Food Sovereignty in Portland
• Interconnected: Ecological Justice as Social Justice
• The Grounding Effects of Nature for Mental Health
• Using Digital Maps to Save Lives Across the Globe

 

Keynote speaker: Dr. Tommie Smith

Dr. Smith is a former Olympian and advocate for racial justice. He is best known for raising his clenched fist during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City as a symbol for Black power, liberation, and solidarity. 

Jesuit Day of Community Action: 

Our community participated in more than 60 workshops, seminars, and creative expressions. Presentation topics included Artificial Intelligence, Indigenous rights, and climate change. The last session of the day was dedicated to advocacy, where students engaged in nearly 1,500 actions for change, such as letter-writing campaigns, in one hour. 

Jesuit Day of Community & Action Presentations:

• Advocating for Human Rights in the Philippines
• Women in Professionalism
• Confronting the Past to Build an Inclusive Future
• Live Green: Environmental Activism in our Daily Lives
• Why is Faith a Call to Action
• Reimagining Technology to Empower Vulnerable Communities
• Introduction to Youth Organization

Community Celebration Assembly:

More than 80 students participated in this joyous observance of the diversity that makes up the Jesuit High School community!

 

 

 

 

 

Keynote speaker: Anthony Ray Hinton 

Mr. Hinton spent 30 years on death row in the Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, Alabama for a crime he did not commit.

Bryan Stevenson - acclaimed public interest attorney, bestselling author of Just Mercy, and Equal Justice Initiative founder - represented Mr. Hinton and ultimately convinced the US Supreme Court to unanimously overturn Mr. Hinton's conviction. Today, Mr. Hinton is an Equal Justice Initiative Educator who advocates for abolition of the death penalty.

Human Dignity Presentations and Workshops

• A Generation Of Action : Making  A Difference as a Young Adult
• Dehumanization of Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers
• Gentrification, Houselessness and the Affordable Housing Crisis
• God In All Places: How Jesuits encounter God all over the World
• Portrait of My Familia: Understanding Race and Identity Through My Family's Stories
• The Desi Project: Analyzing Misrepresentation in Mainstream Media
• Dreamers and Refugees: A Photojournalist Gives Voice to Undocumented Teens