PENG PROMOTES PEACE
Senior Brittany Peng receives Fairfax County Student Peace Award for youth community peace-building organization ALEENA GUL NEWS EDITOR POLINA ZUBAREV FEATURES EDITOR
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he room was loud, with over 50 Northern Virginia students in attendance at the Open Peacebuilding and Leadership (OPL) Conference in December 2019. Then-sophomore Brittany Peng was helping Xuan Huynh, a senior friend from Woodson High School, organize the event. Peng is the current CEO of LeadPeace, an organization that holds different peacebuilding events, particularly for youth minorities and women. “I think that everyone deserves a chance to be heard because I know what it’s like to not be heard, and I never want to make anyone else feel like that,” Peng said. “I want to make sure that people recognize that they do have a position in society where they can do something.” LeadPeace initially started as the OPL Conference. Peng and Huynh transformed it into what it is today. “[The conference] was just really inspiring, so we just took it from there, and we rebranded to LeadPeace,” Peng said. “Because of COVID, we cannot hold another conference, even though we were planning to.” When Huynh graduated and went to college, she passed down LeadPeace to Peng, who has served many roles both in the OPL Conference and LeadPeace. “Why I got involved was [partly because of] my friend…but also [to see] how, together as youth, we could unite and make change, especially with all the issues going on right now,” Peng said. Peng’s drive for initiative and passion to highlight peace in her community made her one of 21 FCPS students to earn the Student Peace Award of Fairfax County this year. Peng is grateful for the recognition and hopes to continue bringing positivity and change within the community. “Impact can go a long way even in my personal life, besides the community,” Peng said. “The way I think about change…is that there [are] three landscapes. There’s the interpersonal level, there’s the cultural level, 18 | FEATURES | APRIL 2021
and there’s the structural level.” On these multiple levels, young CEO Peng is using her platform to work on combating issues that face the globe, while focusing on the local community first. “Moving forward, it’s already 2021, and we still have humanitarian issues that are just so exacerbated by war or whatever it might be,” Peng said. “But even locally, [issues can be determined by] how you treat other people too [and] how you can take into account someone else’s feelings or point of view, even though you might not understand it or resonate with it.”
I THINK THAT EVERYONE DESERVES A CHANCE TO BE HEARD BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO NOT BE HEARD, AND I NEVER WANT TO MAKE ANYONE ELSE FEEL LIKE THAT.” - BRITTANY PENG SENIOR
As part of her mission, Peng organizes Lead Talks, a public speaking initiative, and ArtPEACE, an art expression initiative. These two new forms of peace-building events have found success during the pandemic. Lead Talks consist of youth guest speakers, usually activists and people from other peace-oriented professions who identify as people of color, women or other minorities. They are invited to come to the organization each month to share their stories. “I think one of the most memorable ones was with a Syrian-American activist,” Peng said. “She said when 9/11 happened, she was in elementary school, and she was pulled out of her class [by her principal] because she was evidently Muslim. [She also] talked about being harassed from then on and how
she got involved in human rights activism.” The point of Lead Talks is not to center on negative stories or simply talk about a person’s achievements or their work. “[Lead Talks are for] these leaders to share their stories, like, ‘I’ve been through this, and I’m sure you’ve been through things too, but guess what? I made it and you can make it too,’” Peng said. “It’s about empowerment.” For those who are more creative, ArtPEACE is a monthly art challenge event that encourages people to create pieces of art about a specific topic. “[After] people submit their art, those are used as catalysts of discussion during [subsequent] community dialogues,” Peng said. “For example, back in May, we held a systemic racism versus institutional racism dialogue…just so we can foster those discussions because those discussions are really important.” Through LeadPeace, primarily the Lead Talks and ArtPEACE events that she holds, Peng and her team hope to engage local youth minorities in important issues and make sure their voices are heard, which can impact their community in a positive way. “Once the participants come in and listen to their speaker, our main goal is for them to leave the talk feeling empowered,” said Kheira Bekkadja, a senior at Thomas Edison High School who is the Lead Talks director. “[We focus on] letting everyone know that they have the power to make their own change, [and] they have the power to do whatever they want. We want them to achieve their dreams.” Using social media as a platform, the LeadPeace team has focused heavily on mental health lately but hopes to elevate awareness and provide support to teens regarding a variety of subjects. “[We] love to talk about mental health, and it’s a very important topic, [but we want] to cover as many topics as we can and make our audience feel welcome in every single platform, whether it’s [promoting] mental health, spreading awareness or feeling represented,” said Shanti Ashok, a sophomore at Oakton High School who is the LeadPeace content team director. Page design by Polina Zubarev
