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Middle School teams up with Malala Fund
Inspired by the book I Am Malala and in partnership with The Malala Fund, St. Andrew’s middle schoolers are beginning a yearlong conversation around gender, education, and youth empowerment.
This summer all rising sixth, seventh and eighth grade students were required to read the young reader’s edition of I Am Malala, the story of Malala Yousafzai and her campaign for universal access to education. Yousafzai is the youngest-ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gretel Truong, Film Campaign Manager for the Malala Fund, spoke to students in June and returned today, the first day of school, to lead discussions about the book.
“What struck me about her story is she was essentially a middle schooler—11 years old—when she started speaking out,” said Rodney Glasgow, Head of Middle School and Chief Diversity Officer. “There are great books about girls’ education, but this is about a kid who spoke about her need to be educated as a kid.”
The Malala Fund continues this work by introducing Yousafzai’s story to students around the world through workshops and screenings of the film, “He Named Me Malala,” which St. Andrew’s Middle School students will view on Friday.
“We really believe young people are the future, but they also have a seat at the table,” Truong said. “They should express their rights and concerns whatever age they are, so they feel empowered, much like Malala.”
In advisory groups, students created posters that depicted moments in Yousafzai’s life when she used her voice to make a change. They then shared how Yousafzai’s story motivates them as they enter the new school year.
“It inspires me to get better grades because other kids can’t go to school,” said Tobi Akinde ‘23.
Adrienne Ahmad ‘22 said Yousafzai’s story made a unique impression on her because she is also Pakistani. She said it is important to her to have Pakistani role models and is now motivated to be a role model for sixth and seventh graders.
“I’ve been through all the grades they’ve been through,” Ahmad said. “I just want to inspire and encourage them.”
Reading and discussing I Am Malala is one component of the year’s theme, “Use Your Voice. Change the World,” Glasgow said. New this year, students have been assigned to single-sex advisories, which research shows has the potential to disperse cliques, build community, provide a safe space for open discussion, and aid stereotype reduction, Glasgow said.
“As a research-informed school that thinks deeply about creating environments that enhance the social, emotional, and academic growth of all of our students, we could not help but think that finding places in our coeducational setting to create single-sex opportunities for engagement could be ideal, especially in the middle school,” Glasgow said. “We know that, in conjunction with the onset of adolescence that accompanies ages 11-14, gender roles become more pronounced and gender becomes an increasingly important lens through which young people interpret the world and their place within it.”
St. Andrew’s Episcopal School is a private, coeducational college preparatory day school for students in preschool (Age 2) through grade 12, located in Potomac, Maryland.