Upstander Stories
Stories and essays from today's upstanders
Stories Landing Page
How To Be An UpstanderFour Guiding Principles for Difficult Conversations
In the wake of Freddie Gray’s death, a Baltimore teacher finds Facing History tools and resources essential in creating the safe space for students to discuss the painful local events around them.
Tanya Huelett
Student EssayTo Be a Sky Tracer
Read a scholarship winning essay about a student in Mexico City who created a museum to help educate others about the Holocaust.
Regina O
Student EssaySpeak Up
Scholarship winner Claire draws personal connections to the story of upstander Fred Korematsu, a civil rights activist who brought a lawsuit against the United States to object against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
Claire C
Student EssayPushing Through Fear
Read student Morgan's experience being bullied and how she used her experiences as a catalyst to lobby for a statewide task force to study bullying in Kentucky. Morgan's essay was a scholarship-winning submission for Facing History's 2017 "Making Choices in Today's World" student essay contest.
Morgan G.
Student EssayOn Ubuntu
Read a scholarship-winning essay from Facing History's 2017 "Making Choices in Today's World" student essay contest. Student Eniola details the impact her fellow students and community members have had on her personal journey to becoming an upstander.
Eniola A.
Upstander StoryMy Facing History Journey
A student shares their experience with Facing History and Ourselves' seminal resource, Holocaust and Human Behavior and the class' journey through Scope and Sequence.
Dayauna B.
Student
Upstander StoryMemphis Students Unite Their Community 100 Years After A Lynching
Learn how Memphis high school students were inspired by a class research project to create the action group Students Uniting Memphis and bring the community together commemorate the 1917 murder of lynching victim of Ell Persons.
Stacey Perlman
Upstander StoryHow Samantha Power Inspired Me to be an Upstander
A student shares her transforming experience hearing upstander Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, speak at school visit.
Yohara M.
Student
Student EssayFacing Hate with a Voice of Reason
Read a scholarship winning essay from our 2017 "Making Choices in Today's World" student essay contest. Student author Ewurakua shares her family's personal experiences with racism and discrimination in their own community and draws connections to the novel To kill a Mockingbird.
Ewurakua D.
Student
Student EssayCongratulations! It's a Mockingbird
Read Cicada's scholarship-winning essay from Facing History's 2017 "Making Choices in Today's World" student essay contest. Cicada explores themes of gender and exclusion in their own life and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Cicada S.
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