2007 Youth Scholar — Ursula Mlynarek, Riverside University High School, Milwaukee, Wis.
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Ursula has been an active vehicle for change in many areas of social justice and civil liberties. Even before attending high school, she interned at ArtXpress, where she helped create graphics to fight oppression. The graphics were legally placed on the side of public buses. She and others formed the Milwaukee Youth Liberation Army which fought for adequate school funding and peace.
Ursula has fought against military recruitment in schools, having organized rallies and protests, sometimes tabling right next to her military opposition. She provided information on peace and alternatives to recruiting, as well as statistics on the financial implications of war and homeless veterans. Ursula was a plaintiff in an ACLU of Wisconsin lawsuit fighting military recruitment in schools.
Ursula has also pioneered chapters of Amnesty International and Gay-Straight Alliance at her high school. She has created intergenerational and inter-organizational alliances between activist and peace groups. She initiated the ACLU of Wisconsin’s first high school-based Student Alliance at her high school, has hosted “movies that matter” for her high school comrades based on the ACLU’s Freedom Files project, and has volunteered to run workshops at ACLU youth sponsored events.
Ursula traveled to Venezuela to learn about youth activism, and has been a guest on radio to discuss various civil liberties issues.
Ursula's Personal Essay:
Consciously, I work for others and for the society that we share. I recognize the advantages that I have had: a stable childhood, good living conditions and access to education and healthcare, among other things, and because of these advantages I owe it to my community to help other people secure those same advantages, including basic human rights.
Developing a passionate mindset with the belief that I must give back to our international community has also been a life long process guided by my politically and socially conscious family, the community that helped raise me as well as the personal experiences that push me to succeed.
Political and social activism are power sources that have helped me fight for the things that I believe will make our world a better place to live. The work I have done for people's rights and for the improvement of our world has evolved into a habit. No longer is the time I spend on activism brought on by a need to expand my list of extracurricular. My life is dedicated to working for the world that I live in and for the people that I live with because it is a responsibility that I have claimed.
The summer before I attended high school I was an intern for ArtXpress. While there, I was exposed to many progressive influences. We would discuss manifestations of oppression and from there create graphics encouraging action. These would be placed on the sides of Milwaukee public buses (legally). I did this for two consecutive summers. Some of the new friends that I'd made there and I joined together to discuss some of the disparity and lack of justice and civil liberties that we observed in our community and the world at large. We formed the Milwaukee Youth Liberation Army. We would create rallies based on lack of adequate funding for education and collaborate with other groups such as Peace Action Network and Amnesty International. We organized around anti-war issues and "truth in recruiting" issues. We eventually began tabling at many different Milwaukee public high schools and would sit at a table adjacent to the recruiters and provide peace information and alternatives to recruiting, as well as statistics and facts on how much money military personnel will actually receive, long term effects of war, number of homeless veterans, etc...
During this time (2005) I began attending Milwaukee Public School Board meetings regularly, demanding that they advertise "opt out" options or change the program to be "opt-in", rather than providing any personal information from the young students to the military. After attending many public meetings where we spoke at length (and in numbers) about the issue of military access to student records, they began promoting the "opt out" alternative more. The military visited high schools more than the allowable amount, and recruited in a variety of places around the schools — even going so far as to stop students in the hallway. As a result of this, and with the encouragement of my friends and allies, I filed a suit with the ACLU of Wisconsin against the military for violating the No Child Left Behind Act. I now serve actively on the Milwaukee Public School Board as a youth delegate - a new position.
After this, I traveled to DC by bus to protest the war with Peace Action and many other groups. In the summer, I helped to coordinate a Books Not Bombs Rally which was my favorite rally of all time. We had over 150 people attend and we provided free books and food, many speakers, music and poetry. The rally was an effort to raise consciousness about war. There was a lot of positive feedback from everyone who attended and even those who couldn't come.
During the summer, I interned with the Urban Ecology Center as an outdoor leader. We focused on environmental justice, corporate polluting, the effects of poverty on pollution, our immediate environment we also were camp counselors for a month after our training.
At the end of the summer I was able to attend the 16th Annual Youth and Student World Festival in Caracas, Venezuela. It was truly amazing. I saw Hugo Chavez speak twice. I stayed in Central Caracas with students from all over the world. We discussed youth activism, direct action, attended workshops, networked and made friends with folks from all over the world. It was quite inspiring...especially talking with the young people from Iraq.
Attending the Annual Youth and Student World Festival inspired me to join up with my friends again in order to create the Students Not Soldiers rally in a large Milwaukee park. I appeared on a local radio station to discuss many different civil liberties issues with the hosts, such as illegalities with military recruitment of young people, inadequate funding for schools, failure of the school board to do their job, etc...
So far I helped to create the first Amnesty International Chapter at Milwaukee High School of the Arts, the first Gay Straight Alliance at Riverside HS, the first ACLU Student Alliance at Riverside HS. I am an active participant in the statewide model UN, I've been on the National Honor Society for three years, was the recipient of "18 under 18" from onmilwaukee.com, received the Public Allies "Honorary Ally Award" and volunteered at the Hope House Transitional and Homeless Family shelter 4 days per week for three months. I am firmly committed to community organizing and exploring the issues that affect our lives. I would like to continue my education in order to more efficiently work toward social change. Actually, I can't wait.