A Wilson High School student will serve on the advisory board of a foundation founded by Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta.
Kemi Ojikutu, 16, a 10th grader, has been selected as a 2023 adviser to the Born This Way Foundation.
Ojikutu is a member of VOiCEup Berks, the local affiliate of Youth Volunteer Corps, and a leader of the corps’ Stand Together Against Racism, or STAR, program. She leads Wilson’s STAR group and works to raise awareness of and education about important topics, including racism and other forms of prejudice.
“We are honored to introduce our newest Advisory Board and kick off 2023 with such an inspiring group of young leaders,” Germanotta, foundation co-founder and president, said in a news release. “Born This Way Foundation’s work is done for and in partnership with young people, and we are grateful for the perspectives, knowledge and experiences that each adviser brings to our team and work.”
The foundation supports youth mental health and works with young people to build a kinder and braver world through high-impact programming, youth-led conversations and strategic partnerships, the release said.
The advisory board is composed of 31 young people ages 15 to 24 from 10 countries.
Ojikutu and the others in the 2023 cohort were selected from more than 360 applicants from around the world for their efforts to make a difference in their communities. They will collaborate with foundation staff, advise the foundation on programming and serve as ambassadors for the foundation.
They also will share their experiences on Channel Kindness, a digital storytelling platform created by the Born This Way Foundation as a safe space for young people to share stories of kindness, resilience and community in support of themselves and others.
Germanotta said she and her daughter are moved by the advisers’ commitment and look forward to working alongside them.
In her role as an adviser to Born This Way, Ojikutu said she will help counsel the foundation on youth issues, including the mental health challenges and racial prejudices young people face.
“I feel that if more people knew about mental health issues, they would be more understanding and less judgmental,” Ojikutu said. “If people took the time to walk in the shoes of someone facing mental health challenges and tried to understand them before just treating them a certain way or thinking about them a certain way, we would all learn to be kinder.”
The keys, she said, are education, understanding and empathy.
“I want to be in a world where prejudice does not impact people the way it does (now),” Ojikutu said, “where people aren’t judged by the state of their mind or the color of their skin. I really want to work to decrease that in our world because it’s a huge problem that affects so many people.”
In addition to her work with STAR, Ojikutu is president of Wilson’s sophomore class, co-secretary of the high school’s model United Nations club, a leader of its debate team and member of the school’s track and field team.
She also teaches Sunday school at her church.
“If we could all just accept and understand and learn about each other before we make assumptions and treat each other based on those assumptions,” she said, “the world would be much better place.”
Source: Berkshire mont