Peace, as usual, was the focal point of this year’s Peace Essay Contest and Scholarship program.
Elementary through high school students had a chance to read their poems about peace and three students received $1,500 scholarships to continue their higher education goals during the annual program event sponsored by Veterans for Peace NCFL, Chapter 14.
The three scholarship recipients — Kevin Savoi, Tess J. Segal and Cathleen Valenzuela — were chosen for their commitment to activities including social justice and peace, coalition building, Black Lives Matter, conflict resolution and/or nonviolent social change.
Savoi, 26, a first-generation college student attending Santa Fe College, is a leader in student government and the Justice Club. A digital media and technology major, Savoi said he wants to pursue a career in filmmaking so he can tell stories from a Black perspective “that people don’t’ see much.”
In the meantime, Savoi has stayed busy making a difference on the SF College campus and in the community. He picked the brains of his college advisors a couple of years ago when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law banning public colleges and universities in the state from spending funds on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
That led to the dismantling of the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) program at SF College, which was created about 20 years ago by former then-SF President Jackson Sasser to support Black male students through graduation with the goal of closing the graduation rate gap between Black and white male students, according to a Foundation for Student Success mentor case study.
After consulting with his advisors who told him about the Mu Beta Kappa fraternal society at the college, Savoi helped to re-charter Mu Beta Kappa to take over the role of providing academic support for working-class Black male students at the college, according to his bio printed in the VFP Peace Scholarship program.
Re-chartering Mu Beta Kappa “was perfect” because not only did it allow MBK to continue, but it also allowed it to expand, Savoi said.
“Now we have expanded our reach to more people we can help, including white and Hispanic students,” Savoi said.
Segal, a former University of Florida student, was arrested in 2024 with eight other UF students for participating in a campus demonstration in support of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
Segal received the prestigious CLAS Scholars Award in 2023 but was suspended from UF after being arrested and is now pursuing her education out of state. She has been active in Gainesville with Black Lives Matter, Civic Media Center and food insecurity in working-class communities.
“As both a Jew and a sustainability student, I believe it is my duty to engage in tikkum olam, or world repair,” Segal wrote to VFP. “For me, that means throwing a wrench in the works of colonization and militarism, rather than being a cog in those machines.”
Valenzuela, a political science and sociology major at UF, said that it became clear that fighting for autonomy and empowerment through women’s reproductive freedom became the most critical way to support gender equality after Roe vs. Wade got overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“From campaigns to non-profit work, my dedication to this cause has inspired me to pursue diverse opportunities that engage with all facets of the issue.”
Veterans for Peace believes in working with and helping first-generation college students serious about making a difference in society, said Paul Ortiz, a member of VFP NCFL and a former history professor at UF who is now a labor history professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
“We want to encourage and recognize students involved with activist work,” Ortiz said in a phone interview with The Sun.
The 15th annual Peace Poetry Contest featured several students reciting their poems at the event on Saturday in front of family, friends and others.
One of the poems, “Same on the Inside,” was written by Aasiya Ahmed, a fifth-grader at Oak Hall School.
The final two stanzas of the poem read, “One day I believe we can live up to equality. One day we will all be the same within and be free.”
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