STEPPING UP
Group urges students to make a positive difference and stand for a change
Derrick Gillespie, 18, was swept up in a movement Thursday that started on the basketball court at the Salvation Army Kroc Center and spread, swooping up the hundreds of students in the room committed to stand up and make a positive difference in their communities.
“Are you bad enough to stand with the one girl who started the whole movement in your school?” Broderick Connesero shouted over a sea of students in SAVE (Students Against Violence Everywhere) T-shirts. The national nonprofit group works to change neighborhoods and schools by training young people to believe enough in themselves to do the right thing.
“No more tweeting ‘violence,’ ” said Connesero, a minister at Living Hope Vollintine Evergreen, a Christian organization. “My main point to you is that change begins with you. If you stand, then your reality can change.”
Gillespie watched from the sidelines, and then got up and joined the growing thong moving toward the
We want students that are ready to make a change. Our charge to them is to change the world one student at a time.”
Janice Tolbert, SAVE Conference organizer
front.
Shelby County Schools believes enough in the power of one to schedule a day off for 250 students from 22 high schools who were selected by their peers to learn more about how to be change agents.
“The two Student Congress representatives from each school were charged with gathering a group from their school,” said Janice Tolbert, SAVE Conference organizer. “We told them to pick a sampling of people. We didn’t want just the Student Council students. We want students that are ready to make a change.
“Our charge to them is to change the world one student at a time,” Tolbert said.
If they need help when they get back to school, their guidance counselors have been trained. So have student leader advisers, and the positive behavior intervention counselors .
The one-day conference, in its fourth year, is funded by a state Safe Schools grant. It included box lunches from Lenny’s and a variety of student dance and music performances interspersed between speakers, including Connesero, who grew up in Compton, California, selling drugs. When he moved to Memphis, his territory was Whitehaven and Richardson Towers at the University of Memphis.
Connesero’s message Thursday was “all it takes is one. ... The one person that gets up and is a little nervous and scared but does it anyway. ... Then the one person who is not as smart, not as cool, not as athletic as you comes along and stands beside you, and there are two people instead of one.”
Gillespie, a senior at Melrose High School, said, “It made me feel good that I stood and made a change on my own. I think I can help some other people make changes, too.”
In the hall, during a break, John Holmes, 18, talked about the pressures of living in poverty and the negative culture he says grows up with it.
“It’s hard to be an angel in a city of demons. When you come from such a bad environment, you’re not seeing anything that is good. It’s hard to try to stand up to that alone. That’s where leadership really comes in.”