Bay Area Students Start Upstander Club

A Facing History course introduced in the 2004-2005 school year at St. Francis High School in Mountain View, California inspired students to see how they could make a difference in their community. Teacher Heather Washington's course on Holocaust and Human Behavior was an eye-opening experience for many students. Facing History gave them a chance to learn about and become aware of how ordinary people in many situations had chosen to act on behalf of others. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Samantha Power calls such individuals "upstanders." Students also grappled with the consequences of what happens when people simply stand by and do nothing when they see an injustice.

Eager to put what they had learned into action, the students started a Facing History club and embarked on an awareness campaign to promote "standing up and speaking out."

"To educate the school, we decided the most efficient way would be through symbols and words. We chose to sell black and white mixed anti-racism bracelets that say the words, 'Stand Up, Speak Up'...to [point out] the value of a single voice in opposition to evil," wrote student Yasameen R., one of the leaders of the club.

Yasameen adds, "If all that we have done will get even one person to think twice when telling a racist joke, changing the television channel on news of genocide in Sudan, or deciding when to accept a friend of another ethnicity, it will all be worthwhile."

Participating in the club allowed the students to take what they'd learned in class and respond to issues of various kinds--from local incidents of intolerance, to insensitivity in their community, to larger world events, such as the genocide in Darfur-- that young people often feel powerless to address in a meaningful way. The club members decided to donate some of the proceeds from the sales of the bracelet to Facing History in the hope that other schools would offer a course like the one they had experienced.

On September 19th, 2005, Yasameen was one four students speaking during an Allstate Foundation/Facing History Community Conversation with Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Rwanda who courageously sheltered more than 1,200 refugees from certain death and whose story was told in the film Hotel Rwanda.

Yasameen asked Mr. Rusesabagina what gave him the courage to face such danger. "His seemingly simple answer was an important addition to what I was learning in class: He said, 'All you have to do is be yourself, and do what is in your heart.' I realized this man was not a politician or aristocrat, but an ordinary hotel manager who accomplished what he had done his whole life, take care of people. This was an epiphany to me because I am just an ordinary teenager, but I still can make a difference in this world like Paul, and being an upstander doesn't mean you must be a person of power, but just a person," wrote Yasameen, reflecting on the experience.