"Teens for Tolerance" Ideas Festival at CAHS
Modeled after the Aspen Ideas Festival, a local ideas festival dubbed “Teens for Tolerance” will be presented March 7-9 at Columbus Alternative High School by senior Sarah Sinclair and Vice Principal Davan Dodrill.
Last summer, the duo and 16 other student-educator pairs from throughout the United States and Africa attended the Aspen Ideas Festival as part of the Bezos Scholars Program. At the Ideas Festival, they had the privilege to meet with many notable public figures, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their week was spent in discussion with some of the nation’s brightest |
minds, proposing solutions for its toughest problems. At the Ideas Festival’s conclusion, the Bezos Scholars were tasked with creating local ideas festivals in their own communities. “Teens for Tolerance” has three main areas of focus, through which Sinclair and Dodrill hope to foster discussion about diversity and the need for tolerance in the community. The first day of the festival is dedicated to feminism, the second to LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning) rights, and the third to cultural diversity. The festival will feature a variety of speakers, presentations, and activities, including presentations from Columbus City Schools Superintendent Dr. Gene T. Harris as well as professors from Ohio State University and Otterbein College. _ |
Participants needed for Teens for Tolerance
Check us out in February 8's Booster!
Organizers of the first "Teens for Tolerance" Idea Festival are seeking participants, speakers and others to be involved in the March 7-9 event.
It's being organized by Columbus Alternative High School senior Sarah Sinclair and Vice Principal Davan Dodrill. The pair attended the Aspen Ideas Festival last summer, joining 16 other student-educator pairs from throughout the United States and Africa as part of the Bezos Scholars Program. The Ideas Festival gives high-achieving students the opportunity to meet leaders such as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. |
After a week of forums and discussions with some of the nation's brightest minds, the scholars are expected to return home and host their own ideas festivals.
"Teens for Tolerance" has three main areas of focus, said Sinclair, of Clintonville. The first day of the festival is dedicated to feminism, the second to LGBTQ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning -- rights, and the third to cultural diversity. The event is scheduled to feature a variety of speakers and activities, including presentations from Columbus City Schools Superintendent Gene Harris as well as professors from Ohio State University and Otterbein University. CAHS, an alternative college-prep school in the Columbus City District, is located at 2632 McGuffey Road. |
Principal, student unite for festival celebrating diversity
By MARK DUBOVEC Published: Friday, February 17, 2012 6:55 PM EST
The efforts of a Columbus Alternative High School student and administrator that began last summer soon will culminate with a tribute to tolerance and diversity.
Senior Sarah Sinclair and Vice Principal Davan Dodrill are the organizers behind Teens for Tolerance, a local ideas festival set March 7-9 at the school, 2632 McGuffey Road. "It's just kind of a sharing of ideas, getting a conversation going, promoting our central idea of tolerance," Sinclair said. Tolerance, Sinclair said, is important, particularly in an area as diverse as Central Ohio. "We live in a really diverse world, and it's important to be open-minded so we don't miss out on the human connections we might not have otherwise made," Sinclair said. "Being bigoted or intolerant means missing out on a large part of life." The festival will be spread out over three days with a different topic assigned to each. March 7 events will focus on feminism and run from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The events of March 8 will concentrate on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning issues, also from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The festival will conclude from 5 to 9:30 p.m. March 9 with discussion about cultural diversity. Speakers from Ohio State University, Otterbein University, the Central Ohio Rescue and Restore Coalition, Planned Parenthood, the Ohio ACLU, the Kaleidoscope Youth Center, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others will discuss topics ranging from human trafficking |
to reproductive rights and more. Among the speakers will be Columbus City Schools Superintendent Gene Harris.
In addition to speakers, the festival will feature music and dance performances."We reached out to the community, and we got some great answers," Dodrill said. Last summer, Sinclair and Dodrill attended the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado through the Bezos Scholarship Program. The two were among 16 student-educator pairs from the across the U.S. and Africa selected to participate, spending the week discussing solutions to world problems with notable public figures, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, and Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams. "It's an amazing experience," Dodrill said. After completing the program in Aspen, the students were charged with bringing ideas festivals to their own communities, Dodrill said. "They want the festival to be student-driven," he said. "It's up to the student scholars to determine topics." Sinclair said she hopes the people who attend the festival will come away with a new way of looking at things. "We hope they have a new understanding of how diverse and how great the Central Ohio community is," she said, "to challenge the intolerance that's part of our daily lives, that's not always noticed, but can be hurtful and can keep us from experiencing great things in life." |