Written by Charlotte Hauptmann
She is a student teacher at Indian Trail and still loves visiting her old teachers, Ms. Phillips is one of them. Grace Chapa is all about giving back to her community and helping students like her get an education.
Her community service initiative is “Better Together: Diversifying Higher Education.” During the visit, Grace spoke on her initiative. “I’m trying to get all people excited and involved in going to college if that’s what they want. I understand that’s not everyone’s path and that’s super cool too, but for those students who say, ‘I want to do that, but maybe no one in my family has done, or maybe my teachers are saying that’s not an option for me because of x,y, and z,’ I want to tell those people that you can do it. I’m a first-generation college student myself, and so I know it’s not always an easy path to be the first, but I have had such an amazing experience throughout my last four years at Carthage and I just love school.” Grace has been teaching her students about her initiative and what it means to use one’s voice.
She was one of the students who initiated and started the Pink Project here at school. Grace and some of her classmates came up with the idea and organized a plan to get approval and money from the district. They kept going to board meetings until they got the approval. “We must have had very thick skin, there was no deterring us from our goal,” says Grace. She recalls the numerous school board meetings and the inspiration for the Pink Project. “I went to college to visit friends, and I’m like ‘they have free pads and tampons in all of the bathrooms, this is crazy. We should do something like that, why doesn’t our school have that? I think it would be possible.’”
This is what started the revolutionary programs we have set in place at ITA. They might feel small to some, but they are tremendous accomplishments, especially because the Women’s Empowerment Club is entirely student-run. A teacher didn’t come up with these ideas, students did. Grace Chapa was one of those students, and now the club has become an even bigger part of ITA’s social progress.