"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
Poem in response to Life Below Water
February 2019
Song of the Mermaid
By Amrita Bhasin
A plastic bottle
Left carelessly on the beach
Drifts across oceans
Choking a seabird
On Hanauma Bay
A paradisiacal cove of coral
I snorkeled in the calm, iridescent water
In a dreamscape of underwater life
The ocean is a large blue fabric
An expansive quilt covering the space between continents
A turquoise tapestry teeming with schools of fish
But an oil spill oozes an imposing ink stain
A puddle swallowing the fish
The sea looks beautiful-
It is stunning from the outside
But 300 feet below sea level
There are spaces of wasteland
Plastic debris threatens life
Jellyfish, albatrosses, barnacles
Drown in the unknown vortex
The future ocean should be magnificent
Inside and out,
A fluid and lucid world
An aquamarine drapery
Sheltering all it contains
A place unlike the present
Where upon swimming in the ocean,
I am more likely to encounter a plastic bag drifting on the surface
Than a brightly colored fish
Flittering among the waves
I can hear the mermaid’s song
Insistent and urgent
Calling out to us who grace the land,
Will we save the realm of myths and legends?
Sailors, shipwrecks, buried treasures
The lighthouse blinks a siren song
Will we heed the call?
The great white shark is defenseless
The deep blue waters are powerless
Our drift nets have spread like tentacles
Enveloping all in their path
Every day I hear the mermaid’s song,
It’s there every time a plastic bag
Litters the beach,
Sea lions wash up on the sand
A humpback whale helplessly tangles in a net
The mermaid sings her urgent song
Will we tell a future generation
Of scuba diving in the Caribbean
Riding the waves in Santa Cruz
Sailing on the Mediterranean Sea?
What if they ask us
Why did you not do anything?
Why did you not heed the mermaid’s song?