Woodland stands out amongst other high schools for many reasons, including the many incredible clubs they offer to the students. Among these clubs is Woodland Worldwide.
“Mrs. Deborah Flaherty was teaching a class called Contemporary World Issues, which was essentially a modern history class. One of the topics that were discussed in the class was human trafficking, not only in foreign countries but also right in Connecticut. Mrs. Flaherty saw how shocked, upset and angry the students became over this issue. The students related it to modern day slavery and knew that they had to become activists,” says Mrs. Megan Geary, an original member of Woodland Worldwide. “Woodland Worldwide was officially founded in 2009 by Mrs. Flaherty and Mrs. Olivere to help students fight against human trafficking. When Mrs. Flaherty decided to step down from her position in 2011, Mrs. Olivere asked me if I would accept the position, and of course, I said yes.”
“In the first five years of Woodland Worldwide the focus of the club was to fight against human trafficking and hold fundraisers that would support these causes in the United States and Cambodia. We dedicated our work to organizations outside of the community,” stated Mrs. Geary. “However, we decided that it would be important to also talk about issues in our own community such as oppression against women, girls, and children. WWW essentially became a feminist organization.”
“In the past years, we have also held workshops that talked about issues such as boys and girls stereotypes, toxic masculinity, and qualities that box people into a gender. We look at our students and choose to focus on the topics that are most important to them. For example, we are hoping to focus on additional issues in the future, such as domestic violence. Most people believe that the victims are mostly women when in truth, it can be anybody. We are also moving to look at issues about race and black and brown women versus white women.”
“We want to develop our students’ ability to lead and speak about what they are passionate about. Our meetings are once or twice a month on Tuesdays at 6:00 pm, and they are all almost entirely student run. We want our students to come up with an idea, create, and make their vision come alive. In addition, we do not have a strict attendance policy, so students may take on a leadership role simply when it comes to them. We understand that many of our students have sports and other activities, so they are welcome whenever they can come,” says Mrs. Geary.
“In the future we have big plans such as moving into race equality and tackling problems in our immediate community. We also have plans to hold a fundraiser to fight against domestic violence. We had a guest speaker come to our last meeting to talk about their knowledge on the topic, and now we hope to spread awareness to as many people as possible about this issue as well. This awareness campaign will allow us to collect money and gift cards that will be given directly to victims of domestic violence.”
”Being a member of Woodland Worldwide even helps students to develop skills that can help them with future projects such as capstone and senior projects. I have even had college students come back and tell me how much our club has helped them, whether they continued to be an activist or simply had more confidence when speaking in front of a crowd.”
“Our club is difficult to explain because it is always changing. Issues come up, and we respond. Our agenda is based on what is happening in our society. In this way our club fights for all human rights,” Geary concluded.
Woodland Worldwide has been working for ten years now to better the world in every way they can. For their actions and passion to make the world a better place, we are extremely lucky.
“Woodland Worldwide gives the students power.”
