If the news can sometimes get to you, let these teenagers and their stories get to you, too.
They’re different.
These writers have been selected from high school students who tried their hand as guest columnists in our Chicago’s Next Voices series.
Previous columnists ranged from 20-somethings to retirees.
It was time to hand the mic to the next generation.
One is a South Sider who’s making every effort to shed her introverted nature to be the leader her late father saw inside her.
Another is a suburban student who recalls visiting the crematoriums of Dachau concentration camp on a trip to Germany, which she said crystallized the importance of tangible connections to the past.
Another is a Walter Payton College Prep student whose view of graffiti while taking the Red Line to school helped open his eyes to the power of public art.
Another is a Willowbrook High School student who ponders the positives and negatives of pervasive social media.
The teenage guest columnists share the hopes, frustrations and fears that connect us all.
Over the next four months, these are the Chicago’s Next Voices writers whose work we’ll be publishing:
Kennedy Grooms
Kennedy Grooms’ father Philip Grooms, a chief with the Chicago Fire Department, died from a heart attack late last year.
“He passed away last year in November, so I wrote about how he’s helping me look ahead into my future, even though he’s not here any more, by remembering the lessons he taught me,” says Kennedy, a 15-year-old freshman at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in West Englewood.
They were tight. Her father’s car was the first to park in the parents’ pickup line at school since she was in first grade.
“He taught me how to be a leader, and I use those lessons and sayings to help me look ahead and be a leader instead of staying all curled up,” she says.
“I am really into web design, and there’s not a lot of women in that field. So I think being a leader in that field is really important, and I also try to help students in my class even if they’re older than me,” Kennedy says.
My dad would say “‘What do leaders do?’ And I’d say ‘Help. They help people be the best they can be.’ He taught me to say it, but it naturally came to me as I got older.”
She may have memorized the words her father taught her, but putting them into practice is another matter.
“I feel like I’m really introverted, so being a leader is out of my comfort zone, so I have to push myself,” she says, noting that she can hear her father’s voice encouraging her head.
“I have this necklace that has my dad’s ashes in it, and I think that helps me. It reminds me to be a leader and push on because I never take it off,” says Kennedy, an only child whose mother teaches psychology part time at DePaul University.
Sarah Enescu
While visiting the memorial at the Dachau concentration camp two summers ago with family, Sarah Enescu listened to her uncle say of the crematorium: “This is a really sad place. It should be torn down.”
Sarah, who’s 16 and a junior at Willowbrook High School, recalled coming to a very different conclusion.
“I couldn’t help but just imagine the crematorium being used, and just standing there. And, suddenly, it wasn’t something I read in a book or saw in a movie. It was real. It happened. And I turned around and walked out and down the same path that led me there,” says Sarah, who’s involved with her school’s newspaper and plays saxophone in several school bands.
Monuments serve a purpose, even if they are sad, she says.
“I feel like monuments need to be here for a reason, they are a living example of what to do and not do, a reminder of sorts, especially in today’s times. We live in an increasingly polarizing time and especially young people might not know what to feel, and we are always losing our connection to the past as time goes on,” says Sarah, who was born in Chicago but feels a close connection to her family’s Romanian roots.
“I just think it’s important . . . just to be aware,” says Sarah, whose father, Stefan, does maintenance in apartments and whose mother, Monica, does custodial work at an office building in Chicago.
Steven Jiang
Steven Jiang’s boredom on his Red Line commute from Hyde Park to Walter Payton College Prep on the Near North Side melted away as he began to pay attention to the graffiti along the route.
He also began noticing more and more murals on the sides of buildings around the city.
And he got to thinking about the power of art.
“There are many forms of public art and whether it’s legal or not, the important thing is that it’s provocative, bold and daring, and that’s the mindset we need as a city as we look toward the future and beautify neighborhoods and create more vibrant communities,” says Steven, 15, a sophomore.
“There needs to be attention to aesthetics and a willingness to put yourself out there and share your message with the world,” he says.
As a hobby, Steven draws and paints — portraits and cityscapes, mostly. He also runs track.
His dad is in the pharmaceutical industry and his mom is an accountant for the University of Chicago.
He hopes to pursue a career in public administration and empower community artists.
“Art,” he says, “can create hope where there was none.”
Rishika Tipparti
Rishika Tipparti wants to stress that while using social media to engage in activism (such as liking a post or adding a hashtag) might make one feel good about themselves, and perhaps boost their online image as someone who cares, the gesture can’t replace organized protest outside the virtual world.
Rishika,18, a senior at Libertyville High School, ponders the power of social media. She’s on it about 60 to 90 minutes a day.
She spent part of her youth in India. Social media is one of the ways she maintains ties with friends and family there. If she scrolls long enough, though, she sees people using racist stereotypes and being nasty to each other.
Rishika, a leader of her school newspaper, advocates introspection when it comes to what her peers are getting out of social media and what they are putting in. She says to question whether it’s a fair trade for interactions they could be having in the real world.
But she knows it’s hard to extricate oneself from something designed to keep your attention — for better or worse.
“I sometimes have to actively remind myself: ‘Rishi, don’t doom scroll. You have homework to do.’”
