450 Students and Educators Attend ADL’s 9th Annual Youth Leadership Conference

  • October 29, 2015

On October 20th, nearly 450 participants came together at the University of Pennsylvania for ADL’s 9th Annual Youth Leadership Conference: Exploring Diversity, Challenging Hate. Hosted by No Place for Hate® and ADL’s A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute, the 2015 Youth Leadership Conference provided a forum for educators and students from 47 high schools across three states to discuss and action-plan ways to challenge bias in their schools.

The keynote presentation was given by Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper, granddaughters of the late founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. Born and indoctrinated into the WBC, a hate group known for its public protests against Jews, gays, the military and other groups, the sisters shared the story behind their decision to leave the church – and their family – and their attempts to rebuild their lives. Through sharing their own personal stories, Megan and Grace hope to raise awareness about hate, and inspire high school students and educators to speak out and challenge bigotry and discrimination in their own school communities. As one student commented, the keynote speakers were “very eye-opening and truly inspiring.”

After the keynote, students and teachers attended morning workshops with professional ADL trainers to learn about identity, bias, and bullying in their own lives. Students said the morning workshop was “amazing” and one student commented on “the fact that we don’t know who any of these people are, yet we all share similarities between our stories.” In the afternoon, school groups met to develop an action-plan that would bring the lessons they learned from the conference back to their schools. One advisor remarked, “The afternoon workshop with students is always enlightening and provides much insight into the school climate from the students’ perspective.”

Thanks to the opportunities provided by ADL’s 9th Annual Youth Leadership Conference: Exploring Diversity, Challenging Hate, nearly 450 young leaders and educators now have the knowledge and skills to promote respect for diversity in their communities. One student plans to “bring what I learned today back to my advisors and try to stop stereotyping people,” while another is going to “talk about this [experience] and stand up for more people.”

The Anti-Defamation League is the nation’s premier civil rights/human relations agency fighting anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defending democratic ideals and protecting civil rights for all.