"I'm crazy about journalism, as I love being able to open people's eyes to unique events and powerful ideas in the world around them."
"Actions in Spotlight has encouraged me to learn more about why these inequalities exist and how society can resolve them through the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals."
"Actions encourages other young people to learn more and speak out for the causes they support; our voices will be heard."
"Actions in Spotlight has encouraged me to learn more about why these inequalities exist and how society can resolve them through the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals."
"Actions encourages other young people to learn more and speak out for the causes they support; our voices will be heard."
Nonfiction in response to Partnerships for the Goals
May 2019
When I was little, my teachers taught my peers and me skills like adding and subtracting, reading and writing. They also taught us other skills like sharing with each other, talking about our problems, and negotiating solutions. These are basic principles...
By Georgia Bernbaum
May 2019
Nonfiction in response to Partnerships for the Goals
To achieve all 16 goals, the United Nations put forth the 17th goal which encourages collaboration between public and private sector to achieve the goals.Schools, public or private, play an important role to help achieve this 17th goal. They should prepare the future...
By Grace Muresan
Poetry
Poem in response to No Poverty
January 2018
We are far from home.
Empty fields,
empty house.
We left...
​
By Caroline Sun
Poem in response to No Poverty
January 2018
If you can’t face the fac(e)ts of the coin;
Even as lives flicker on its rim,
Each cent a greater weight, a line in the sand;
Consider...
By Ilana Arougheti
Poem in response to No Poverty
January 2018
By Grace Muresan
We live in a bubble,
Gilded with gold.
We can’t see the trouble,
The sorrow untold...
Poem in response to No Poverty
January 2018
Among twenty sleeping campesinos,
The only thing moving
Was the pencil of a girl...
By Jenny Li
Poem in response to Zero Hunger
February 2018
Poem in response to Zero Hunger
February 2018
Stomach grumbles,
So I reach for a snack.
If there’s nothing to eat,
I’m taken aback...
By Kelsey Cashman
you learn to ignore it.
the rumble in your gut
the silent plea from your stomach for food
the craving slowly consumes you...
By Mofe Akinyanmi
Poem in response to Zero Hunger
February 2018
The man gets up from his sleeping bag
And he looks around, his feet he drags
To the nearest place where he can beg for food
Because just a morsel would do him good...
​
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Good Health and Well-being
March 2018
One foot in front of the other,
I adjust my sari,
Glancing down at my bare feet,
The ground moist and hard...
By Amrita Bhasin
Poem in response to Good Health and Well-being
March 2018
Poem in response to Good Health and Well-being
March 2018
They call me water. I go by other names as well: the ocean, the sea, rivers, even H2O, but the most common one is water. Everyone needs me. I’m essential for life, which makes me a sort of celebrity on this planet...
By Mofe Akinyanmi
A little mosquito, landing on a arm
Killed easily
Kills easily
I grimace, squash it...
By Karen Wu
Poem in response to Good Health and Well-being
March 2018
Poem in response to Good Health and Well-being
March 2018
I walk down the hall
Eyes and whispers follow
I’ve heard them so often
That all the taunts fall hollow...
By Kelsey Cashman
“It doesn’t hurt,” the mother said
He thought about the blood
His mother dragged him out of bed
And he laid like a couch spud...
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Quality Education
April 2018
Poem in response to Quality Education
April 2018
The teacher begins to hand out tests
Making her way between the desks.
She hands me mine, I give it a look
Then flip it over, try not to seem shook...
By Kelsey Cashman
A traveling door that leads to all places,
A gateway for scholars that memorizes faces,
And each lucky student, knowing or not,
Is given a key that costs quite lot...
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Quality Education
April 2018
The Student
I wish
I didn’t have to go
to school...
By Caroline Sun
Poem in response to Gender Equality
May 2018
My darling, what a tough world to bring you into:
Too muddy for a princess,
Too steep for a sprite,
Too risky for a sculpture...
By Ilana Arougheti
Poem in response to Quality Education
May 2018
Poem in response to Gender Equality
May 2018
I know it gets hard sometimes. It’s not easy to live in a world where everything seems to be against you. Where some of us don’t get the opportunities to learn, where some of us don’t have access to the things we need, where all of us, from the moment we...
“If you were a boy you could study law.”
If you looked upon me and you saw
The soul of a man’s
My hardworking hands...
By Mofe Akinyanmi
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Gender Equality
May 2018
Poem in response to Clean Water & Sanitation
June 2018
What is gender?
Is it a label?
It certainly holds a lot of power
Gender determines our role in society...
By Georgia Bernbaum
It trickles slowly
Down the lips,
Slithers through the throat,
A quick, cool stream
By Mofe Akinyanmi
Poem in response to Clean Water & Sanitation
Poem in response to Clean Water & Sanitation
June 2018
June 2018
We take it for granted,
Always being able
To reach for a glass of water,
Even though 663 million people, a...
By Kelsey Cashman
O water so impure, why must I try
So hard to shake your taint of rot and ground?
You fill the air, but I’m left high and dry:
Two-thirds of me, but not one drop around.
By Ilana Arougheti
Poem in response to Clean Water & Sanitation
June 2018
Poem in response to Clean Water and Sanitation
June 2018
Water.
I need water
But what can I do?
There is no water
By Karen Wu
The jar is strong with walls of hardened clay,
Its heat-glazed outside patterned black and gray.
Hand after hand has gripped its rounded rim,
And countless water drops have passed its brim.
By Caroline Sun
Poem in response to Affordable and Clean Energy
July 2018
Standing outside, in the sun’s glare.
Deep breath in, lungs fill with air
So crisp and cool, refreshingly clean.
All around, no pollution to be seen.
By Kelsey Cashman
Poem in response to Affordable and Clean Energy
July 2018
Burning and burning
Every day
Until Earth is spent
The air is thick...
By Karen Wu
Poem in response to Affordable and Clean Energy
July 2018
Click.
Before you can even blink,
the lights flicker
on, illuminating your room
By Caroline Sun
Poem in response to Decent Work and Economic Growth
August 2018
All our lives
We are told to work.
Chores, school, summer jobs-
Do whatever you can...
By Kelsey Cashman
Poem in response to Decent Work and Economic Growth
August 2018
Strike! Pull back,
Strike! Pull back,
The hoe is heavy
I’m not ready
By Grace Muresan
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Poem in response to Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Sep 2018
Dear World,
I’ve had a vision. A foresight into what lies in the future. There was once a time where we dreamed of flying cars, spaceships and intelligent robots, and those dreams are close to coming into...
By Mofe Akinyanmi
Poem in response to Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Sep 2018
I sleep in comfort because I have a great bed,
I go to a good school and learn facts that fill my head,
I drink clean water and eat what I desire,
What more could I want? Many will inquire.
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Reduced Inequalities
October 2018
And our ancestors scrapped like matadors,
Blood-lusted and blind, lashing madly out
At any sign of something different. We soured in the heat, clumping and clotting, no uniting flow.
By Ilana Arougheti
October 2018
I remember when I was younger and eavesdropped on my parents’ conversations
They talked society and politics
I remember when I was younger and saw them struggle...
By Georgia Bernbaum
Poem in response to Reduced Inequalities
October 2018
We are equal.
No person is worth less than another.
Age, race, sex, class-
None of that should matter...
By Kelsey Cashman
Poem in response to Reduced Inequalities
October 2018
People always say the thing about being in love
Is that no matter who it’s with it will be blessed from above.
Yet another thing that people tend to say
Is that sinful love is being gay...
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Reduced Inequalities
Nov 2018
Poem in response to Sustainable Cities and Communities
I used to dream of flying cars and spaceships way up high
And clear skies of spotless blue and animals roaming free
But now that I am grown up I know this is a lie.
Because with economic growth there always comes a fee...
By Grace Muresan
Dec 2018
Poem in response to Responsible Consumption and Production
Plop! into the garbage disposal it goes
But after that? Well no one knows
Think of what was used to make
The simplest things for goodness sake!
By Grace Muresan
Poem in response to Climate Action
Jan 2019
No more winters with falling snow.
In no more rivers will water flow.
The once soft kiss of a passing breeze
Will instead make you cough and sneeze.
By Kelsey Cashman
Jan 2019
Poem in response to Climate Action
I live in Florida and sometimes wonder:
In how many days will my city go under?
Our country started out as an empty canvas
But will my state be the next Atlantis?
By Grace Muresan
Feb 2019
Poem in response to Life Below Water
A plastic bottle
Left carelessly on the beach
Drifts across oceans
Choking a seabird
By Amrita Bhasin
Poem in response to Life Below Water
Feb 2019
Seagrass
covers undulating fields, whisper-soft green
Small fish
Streak, tiny orange comets in a vast ocean
By Caroline Sun
Poem in response to Life On Land
Mar 2019
The woods are alive.
Saccharine song drips like honey from the trees,
interspersed with the gentle
pattering of small feet through verdant growth;
By Caroline Sun
Mar 2019
Poem in response to Life On Land
a paw steps forwards
soft, the rich earth
that clutches tight
a wing flutters
By Karen Wu
Mar 2019
Poem in response to Life On Land
A warm summer’s day,
But something is wrong-
No birds in the sky
Singing their songs,
By Kelsey Cashman
Mar 2019
Poem in response to Life On Land
Walking through the woods,
Hearing no sound but silence.
Where have the birds gone?
By Kelsey Cashman
Mar 2019
Poem in response to Life On Land
The portrait on my grandma’s wall once depicted truth,
Of swaths of forest, grass-green hills, and the bright blue sky’s forgiving youth, But nowadays when people pose they go inside and the door they close. For where there were once plains and...
By Grace Muresan
Apr 2019
Poem in response to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
I wake up at 6:00 am
I eat my breakfast: waffles with syrup
I put on my clothes: new jeans and a t-shirt
I pack my backpack: notebooks, pencils, computer
Georgia Bernbaum
Poem in response to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Apr 2019
Every day I am afraid.
When I walk alone I walk
In fear and feeling betrayed.
When I’m alone I’m scared
By Grace Muresan
Apr 2019
Poem in response to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Shooting in the night
But the murderer runs free.
Where is the justice?
By Kelsey Cashman
Poem in response to Partnerships for the Goals
May 2019
1. The first UN Goal in no poverty
To give support to those with little personal property
To raise their lives’ quality
Is our first priority
By Grace Muresan
May 2019
Poem in response to Partnerships for the Goals
Seventeen goals,
To save our world.
Seventeen goals
To end the hurt.