By Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman
WHO: Princeton area high school student, Amani Ahmed, will represent Central and Southern New Jersey among 22 other winners of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations. Vice dean of Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University , four other finalists, parents and school district officials will attend local ceremony.
WHAT: $1,000 prize given to Ahmed for promoting religious understanding and challenging racial sterotypes among Muslim and Jewish teens in the Princeton area.
WHERE: Corner of William and Olden Street, Friends Center Convocation Room, Princeton University
WHEN: May 14, 2014, 7:00pm
WHY: The Princeton Prize is a national service program recognizing outstanding high school students who show leadership by improving race relations in their communities.
Amani Noor Ahmed a Junior at Stuart County Day School started a program in the Princeton area called Eleven Points, which takes a unique approach to improving race relations in the community. Eleven points is a community service organization created to foster closer relations between high school students in the Muslim and Jewish communities by engaging in joint community service projects. The term “Eleven Points refers to the sum of the 6 points on the Star of David and the points on the star from the crescent moon and star symbol of Islam.
Princeton University Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain Sohaib Sultan said that Ahmed’s “inspired vision of bringing together high school students from the Muslim and Jewish communities to engage in community service is having a profound impact on both attitudes and intergroup relations”. He said “the Eleven Points service project is having a powerful, multiplier effect in combatting racism.
In addition to Ahmed, 4 other students will receive certificates for their outstanding work in race relations. These include: a certificate to Marguerite and Skylar Tucker from the Hun School for organizing a local Student Diversity Leadership Conference; Andrew Lopez from North Burlington County Regional High School for helping international students and scholars at Princeton learn conversational English; and Jasmine Baptiste from Hillsborough High School for creating sensitivity training for students around the meaning and flying of the Confederate flag on school property.
A reception and award ceremony will be held in these students’ honor on Wednesday May 14 at Princeton University. Reservations for the event can be made by contacting Linda Blackburn at [email protected]
