On Friday, August 31, Fossil Ridge High School’s Amnesty International chapter hosted their kickoff meeting in room W105. During the meeting, the group explained the goals of the international group, which center around one idea – “to defend human rights wherever they are threatened around the world.” The group has chapters in 150 countries and regions, all of which are working towards the same goal. Fossil’s Amnesty chapter really hopes to build their membership this year, as they experienced a significant loss of people when the class of 2017 graduated.

Brenna Ketchum, Abby Hejmanowski, and Mikeda Ephram, all seniors, are beginning their second year running the club. Each year, they explained at the meeting, Fossil’s club picks two campaigns from the United States’ branch of Amnesty International’s official list of eight priorities to focus their efforts on. Amnesty’s priorities, which span from national security and human rights to gender, sexuality, and identity, are ever-changing topics that are meant to address the most flagrant violations of human rights in the world.

Hejmanowski explained that the club meets Tuesdays and Fridays in room W105, though anyone who wishes to join doesn’t have any obligation to come both those days. Rather, the club hopes to work towards one campaign on Tuesdays and the other Fridays so that people can pick what is most important to them. Voting on those campaigns will take place at next week’s meetings. Even if students have commitments both those days, Jacqui Speight, the club’s sponsor, expressed that they could still get involved by contacting one of the three leaders.

In the past, Fossil’s Amnesty club has done a great deal of work, particularly on the subject of refugee and migrant rights. For example, last year’s group held a week-long event about the Myanmar refugee crisis involving the Rohingya people. During this event, the group gave educational presentations, screened a documentary, played a computer simulation of the event, and wrote letters and signed petitions in support of the Rohingya people.

This year, Amnesty expects that one of their campaigns will probably remain refugee and migrant rights, but they will likely choose to tackle a different aspect of the issue. Their goals for the year will be advocacy and fundraising, as well as setting up a good structure for the club, because its leadership team will all be graduating at the end of the year. Hejmanowski spoke to the commonly-stated concept that the “youth inherit the world”, explaining that, “it’s so true. Why wait? Why wait to start making a change when you can do it now?” Amnesty hopes to provide an accessible platform for students to make real-world change at the national and international level.

Hejmanowski herself is currently serving as one of two Student Activist Coordinators for the state of Colorado for Amnesty. She manages the Fossil group and also reports on five other chapters in Northern Colorado, sending information back to the parent organization so Colorado’s Amnesty initiatives can get more funding. She also facilitates making sure that all her groups have the resources and materials they need, as well as providing leadership trainings and “any guidance that they need.”

Fossil’s branch of Amnesty International will hold their next meetings on Tuesday and Friday at lunch in W105, and they’d love to see any students who are passionate about human rights there.