EAST WINDSOR: O Ambassadors making strides

Students chosen for Arizona camp; matching grant

   The O Ambassadors program, a human rights and global service club with chapters at two schools in the East Windsor Regional School District, has received two honors.
    The program is affiliated with Free the Children, a charity Canadian Craig Kielburger started in 1995 when he was just 12 years old. Today, Mr. Kielburger oversees the international charity that has more than 1.7 million youths involved in its innovative education and development programs in 45 countries.
    The O Ambassadors program began in the East Windsor Regional School District in 2008 when Oprah Winfrey called for 1,000 North American teachers to start O Ambassadors clubs to help Mr. Kielburger’s efforts in developing countries.
    Teacher Felicia Alexander applied for the program and received a grant to launch an O Ambassadors club at Hightstown High School. Today, the club has expanded into the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School and has more than 150 student members as well as two additional faculty advisors, Frances Lavelle and Laura Barker.
    In June, Ms. Alexander learned the O Ambassadors clubs in the district would receive two honors.
    First, Free the Children selected Albert Dong, an officer of the Hightstown High School club, and Aryan Malesha, an officer of the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School club, to attend the Arizona Take Action Camp, located at the Windsong Peace and Leadership Center in the heart of Apache Chiricahua and Tohono O’odham land.
    The program is being offered totally free to these students thanks to a grant from the Disney Foundation. Hightstown High School graduate and O Ambassadors officer Jay Patel received the same honor last year.
    Second, in direct response to the efforts of the O Ambassadors to raise both awareness and funds for Free the Children clean water initiatives in Kenya, an anonymous business decided to present the district’s clubs with a corporate match. Thus, the $2,500 the O Ambassadors raised through its Vow of Silence in the spring was matched to bring the amount to $5,000.
    As a result, the total funds raised for Free the Children throughout the entire school year amounted to nearly $12,000, which means the two clubs raised enough money to provide 1,200 children in Kenya with clean water for an entire year.
    Ms. Alexander said she believes the district’s diversity, both economically and demographically, is key to the two clubs’ popularity and success at both the middle and high schools. She noted the original high school officers hailed from Guatemala, Ecuador, India, St. Kitts and the Philippines, and they were responsible for spreading the word about the activities of the club.
    The O Ambassadors meetings are held twice per month at each of the two schools and focus on current international human rights issues as well as the United Nations Millennium Goals and the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Discussions among students tend to be animated as they are very interested in these topics, according to Ms. Alexander.
    Ms. Alexander said if anyone questioned club members about the mission of O Ambassadors and Free the Children, they would be able to articulate it in no uncertain terms.
    “It is the education component that drives their passion for what they do as O Ambassadors,” Ms. Alexander said.
    She added she is extremely proud of what these students have accomplished in only a few short years.