Description of "No Nukes New Roots"

Artifact 4: No Nukes New Roots

During the second semester of my 10th grade year at New Roots, my best friend Ethan and I started a club that was dedicated to the disarmament of nuclear weapons.  In time, our other friends Kory, Antonio, Irene, Gabe, and Aiden also joined the club.  We would meet during lunches on certain days of the week as a group.  At the end, we wrote a petition on Avaaz.org calling on all the leaders of nuclear weapons bearing countries from around the World to disarm their weapons.  Having been a member of Avaaz for some time, I was inspired to start this club in school when I found out that it was possible for members of this organization who usually got emails asking them to sign petitions to create their own petitions.  Furthermore, at this time in school, we had an assignment in Ms. Sue’s English Class to start a petition about a specific problem after we had been studying about social justice issues that were happening in the world. This was roughly when I first invited Ethan to join me working on this project. Just a short while after this happened, our other friends joined the nuclear disarmament club that Ethan and I had created. The artifact that I have left from this project is a picture of all of us at Ethan’s house either while we were still in the process of writing the petition, or after we finished writing it.  Now, I will go on to talk about the School Wide Outcome (S.W.O.) that I feel this artifact and project aligns with.

This artifact aligns with the S.W.O. of Citizens.  I feel that it aligns with this outcome first because writing a petition to influence the policies and decisions made by politicians means automatically being concerned about what is happening in one’s society.  Second, gathering together with others about the societal issue that you hope to influence means both you and your fellow citizens being and becoming more informed together.  Third and foremost, to be able to write a good petition is a powerful way to channel your knowledge and concern over the given problem towards changing the situation for the better!  This is why I believe that the nuclear disarmament club I started in 10th grade is a perfect example of being an active citizen in this World!!