The 2021-2022 school year was a new start for Maggie Walker students. Coming fresh out of a pandemic, along with the majority of the students not being able to be in the building, created an entirely different situation. However, despite these uncertainties, there were those who took charge and led several brand new initiatives this year, including Race for Unity, a club started by Nithya Ravula (‘24) and Umesh Gunendran (‘23) to help increase awareness and discussion about inclusion and advocacy. Below are excerpts from an interview with Ravula and Gunendran.

Why did you start this club?

Gunendran: We started this club to pro- mote unity and inclusion amongst students in Maggie Walker. Race for Unity is an already existing independent non-profit that we are a part of. We wanted to extend a branch to Maggie Walker to allow for greater advocacy for these important issues. We felt that our school would be an excellent audience for this club because much of our student body is willing to present their opinion and have civil conversations such as these.

How do you feel it has impacted this school?

Ravula: Through our club meetings, we hope to have given students the confidence and comfort to talk about important racial issues with their peers. This will foster a more inclusive and accepting community in Maggie Walker where students are enabled to understand others’ points of view even if they don’t agree with them.

What has this club achieved?

Gunendran: Although we haven’t been able to do much as a club just yet, so far this year, we have built solid conversations around numerous topics such as racial gerrymandering and affirmative action and have also discussed our thoughts on current events such as The Jabberwock: Project 1937 issue, [Jus- tice] Ketanji Brown’s Supreme Court nomination, and the Ahmaud Arbery trial. Through discussions about these contentious issues, we hoped to find common ground amongst the various students at the meetings, and bridge the gap between different viewpoints.

Where do you see this club going in the future?

Ravula: In the future, I think our club has the ability to start important conversations schoolwide. With the topics we discuss within our club meetings, we have so many ideas on how we can implement a better society into Maggie Walker and we hope we can create an inclusive community at our school, allowing every student to feel comfortable. Especially with the issues we are facing currently as a school, we believe our club can work to bring solutions through conversation and understanding. We hope to bring a voice to the people who feel wronged, to help everyone’s opinion be heard.

Umesh: With the flexibility and greater opportunity we will have next year, we hope to hold numerous fundraisers to raise awareness and money to donate to numerous organizations. We also hope to reach out to various other advocates regarding racial injustice and other issues in our community to allow for various panels and Q&A.