Two Juniors Selected for 2016-17 Youth Leadership Forum

Juniors Ken Jiao ’18 and Bela Patel ’18 have been selected to participate in the 2016-2017 Youth Leadership Forum of Birmingham.
 
An outgrowth of the successful Leadership Birmingham program for adults, the forum introduces high school students to community needs, problems, resources, and opportunities and encourages them to get involved in community affairs. 
 
The program’s six sessions, which highlight the arts, government, human services, economic development, education, and other aspects of the Birmingham community, will begin Nov. 10 and run monthly through April. Additional skills workshops will highlight time management, applying and interviewing to college, public speaking, and college readiness. Forty-four students from area high schools will take part.
 
“Ken and Bela will be excellent representatives of Indian Springs,” says Dean of Student Life Jan Fortson. “They are both incredibly civic-minded and active in the school community—Bela through her participation in mock trial, model UN, student government, and Sebastian’s Run/Walk for a Cure; Ken through his participation in student government and cross country and his important research into the link between the protein coding gene CHD7 and breast cancer.”
 
As part of their application essays to attend the forum, both Jiao and Patel highlighted the need for greater understanding about cultural differences and racial divides in the Birmingham community and beyond.
 
“More often than not, organizations of different cultures do not understand each other because they do not take the time to listen,” says Patel.
 
“Growing up as a Chinese American in a predominantly white neighborhood, I have dealt with Asian stereotypes in my life,” says Jiao. “Stereotypes create much conflict between the way certain groups of people are ‘supposed’ to act, and the way certain groups of people actually act. They are the foundation of racism and many other intolerant viewpoints.”
 
Both students proposed that Birmingham and other communities create special events and gatherings for cross-cultural communication and education. 
 
“People of diverse backgrounds coming together through one medium allows for unity through diversity,” says Patel. “An occasion or event of this concept would allow the general public to understand different cultures through one medium such as art, dance, or music.”
 
“This exposure would increase cross-cultural relationships,” says Jiao, who also hopes to establish a journal featuring essays and art by and for area high school students as a means to educate one another about cultural differences. 
 
“A more unified community and a more united country will be achieved through communication and understanding of others,” says Patel.
 
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190 Woodward Drive, Indian Springs, Alabama 35124
Phone: 205.988.3350
Indian Springs School, an independent school recognized nationally as a leader in boarding and day education for grades 8-12, serves a talented and diverse student body and offers admission to qualified students regardless of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Located in Indian Springs, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, the school does not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, or athletic and other school-administered programs.

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