The Tablet . Youth | Diocese of Brooklyn

The Class of 2010 at The Mary Louis Academy, Jamaica Estates, embarked on The Initiatives, a unique social service program designed to foster an awareness of and a response to today’s global social issues.

Three of TMLA’s 10 sophomore homeroom classes have each embraced a different social issue — the environment, women and world poverty — and are organizing activities to increase the school community’s knowledge of these issues and bring about positive change.

During freshman year, each of these homerooms studied various issues and it was these three that garnered the most interest. Students applied to be part of the program and began working on their projects last June. Young women shared ideas, designed a strategy and timeline and set goals all before the end of the school year.

Over the summer, homeroom members researched the subjects and wrote mission statements to guide their work over the next three years. Each group sought to define the principles for which they stand and the actions they plan to take.

Education, advocacy, prayer and service are the central themes of all three homerooms. While they share similar mandates, each has its own structures and strategies.

Environmental Initiative (EI) is under the direction of math teacher Ellen Geis’ homeroom. Their mission statement is: “We, the 2010 Environmental Initiative, strive to protect, conserve and preserve our earth by enhancing awareness within the TMLA community and by initiating actions to benefit the environment.”

Chelsea Tapper, a dedicated vegetarian, joined the EI because she wants “to live in a clean environment.” Classmate Caitlyn Antonpietri believes “people need to learn to respect the environment.”

Geis’ homeroom hopes to spread awareness about the problems concerning the environment and how to correct these problems before it is too late. Toward this end, they began the year with a “greening of TMLA.” The homeroom rooted cuttings for several weeks and provided each room in TMLA with at least one plant. The EI also sponsored a “Green Christmas” campaign, which provided tips for eco-friendly buying, decorating and celebrating. The EI homeroom featured a living Christmas tree, low-energy lights and recycled paper decorations.

The Women’s Initiative (WI), led by students in French teacher Jane DeTorre’s homeroom, hope to broaden political awareness of the global conditions of women. The group combs the newspapers and Internet to keep up to date on global and local issues affecting women. The group’s first school-wide event was a fundraiser for the organization “Women for Women” with the goal of sponsoring one woman in Africa. The event was so successful that more than enough funds were raised to sponsor a woman in Africa for over a year.

Students have gathered information regarding women who are suffering due to human trafficking, sexism and abuse, both physical and emotional. Many students were motivated to join the WI due to the harrowing news reports of women who are forced into sex slavery, abused by their spouses and deprived of their natural rights as human beings.

“Women in our society are not treated equally to men. The Women’s Initiative gives us an opportunity to learn what’s going on,” said Elizabeth Jule.

“There are women in other countries that are still treated like door mats and cannot escape their abusive relationships because they are scared,” said Karyn Pierre-Louis.

STOP — Students Trying to Overcome Poverty — is the acronym adopted by the Poverty Initiative homeroom under the direction of social studies teacher Danielle Fusco. Students hope that their work will impact the less fortunate.

“We believe in the possibility of a poverty-free world which can be achieved through prayer, compassion and working to our fullest potential to help the less fortunate,” Fusco said.

All three of the sophomore “Initiative” homerooms visited the United Nations in October, 2007, to gain a global perspective on issues they’re hoping to affect. Before going to the U.N., the classes researched the history and policies of the organization, especially as it related to the individual homeroom initiatives. Students also familiarized themselves with the goals of the U.N. Millennium Development. Many students were happily surprised by how many of the U.N. goals coincided with the goals they themselves have set up in their homerooms.

Lent is here and the Youth Page is here to help you make the best of this season. Look for a box like this each week. It will offer you, our beloved teen and young adult audience, creative ideas for prayer, thought and action for the weeks leading up to Easter.

WEEK FIVE (March 9-15): This week, sacrifice that hot lunch in the school cafeteria and bring a salad or sandwich from home. Calculate how much money you saved over the five days and put that in your Lenten Mite Box or Operation Rice Bowl box. Or drop it in your parish’s poor box this weekend.
*Remember to abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent.

The Helpers of God’s Precious Infants (www.helpersny.org) have their monthly pro-life Mass and prayer vigil at Blessed Sacrament Church, Jackson Heights, on March 15, starting at 7:30 a.m. Sacrifice a few hours to help save some lives. E-mail frhgpi@aol.com.

The Teen Group at Our Lady of Grace, Gravesend, presents a Lenten meditation, “In Memory Of …” on March 19. Donation: $1 to benefit the Pastoral Ministry Office. Call 718-627-2020 for details.

Youth Way of the Cross Procession, sponsored by Bensonhurst Cluster Youth Ministry Office, March 19, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., starting at St. Dominic’s, Bensonhurst. Jesus’ walk to Calvary is reenacted. Call Kenny, 718-234-0614.

Does society pay too much attention to the personal lives of celebrities? Is this a harmless or obsessive behavior?

Peter Levantis
Holy Cross H.S.
Junior

Society pays too much attention to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. We should develop interest in true role models such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Pope John Paul II who lived with true morals.

Scott Gandasegui
Holy Cross H.S.
Junior

Yes, but it’s harmless. I don’t think anybody should care who Britney Spears is dating but Heath Ledger’s death is something we should pay attention to.

Nick Loccisano
Holy Cross H.S.
Freshman

It is an obsession because people care more about what is going on in the lives of celebrities than what’s going on in their own lives.

Derek Lamacchia
Holy Cross H.S.
Junior

Yes, society does pay too much attention to the lives of celebrities. Celebrities have no concept of the true struggles of life and for the most part, laws don’t even apply to them.

Michael Gallagher
Holy Cross H.S.
Sophomore

Yes, it is an obsession and causes people to do things such as drugs to be cool.

Thomas Lorenz
Holy Cross H.S.
Freshman

Yes. If I were a celebrity, I wouldn’t like the paparazzi taking photos of me every second of my life.