Students from 23 Fairfax County Public Schools were named recipients of the 2018 Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County, which were handed out in a reception held Sunday, March 11, at the Sherwood Community Center in Fairfax.

Since 2006, the awards have recognized youth who introduce programs in their schools on many different issues that promote peace and conflict resolution throughout the county. In the 2017-2018 school year, the recipients each received $200, plus another $100 to be given to any nonprofit organization of his or her choice.

“It’s an honor to be here to help recognize you today for your outstanding work to promote peace throughout Fairfax County and beyond. Your areas of focus cover a wide range of topics and methods, but all unite in one common goal, and that is to encourage and to strengthen peace and unity among all of us,” said Sharon Bulova, Board of Supervisors chairman. “In Fairfax County, we consider our diversity to be our greatest asset. It is what makes us special.”

Special guests included Bulova; U.S. Rep Gerry Connolly (D-11); state Del. Ken Plum (D-36); School Board Member Ilryong Moon; School Board Chair Jane Strauss; School Board Member Ryan McElveen; and Guest Speaker Janessa Gans Wilder, founder and CEO of the Euphrates Institute, who flew in from California for the event. The host and organizer was Margaret Fisher.

Carmen Mazyck, 18, of Alexandria, who attends Hayfield Secondary, was honored for her role in the Hayfield Black Student Union. “With the Hayfield Black Student Union, our motto was to educate, serve, and inspire the community to embrace African-American culture and other cultures to bring people together of all races,” she said.

Bryce Liquerman, 16, of McLean, a Junior at McLean High School, worked with Special Olympic athletes by coaching softball and soccer teams. “I help spread the word in the community that people shouldn’t be awkward around them and people should be very accepting of people who are different mentally and physically,” he said. “We’re all people; it doesn’t really matter, we’re all the same .… I’ve led a lot of activities like doing tournaments and team events with many different Special Olympic athletes who have partnered a lot with other kids in our community.”

Sarah Osman, 18, of Lorton, a senior at King Abdullah Academy, worked with “RefAmerica,” which welcomed high school Syrian refugees who recently moved here. “As American high school students, we got to interact with each other and understand one another’s cultures,” she said. “We actually got to go to Congress and speak to congressional leaders on the matter of welcoming Syrian refugees into our country. I spoke about the plight of the history and how welcoming them into this country keeps the Pilgrim’s legacy alive because the Pilgrims of 1620 came into this country in hopes of starting a brand new land where there would be freedom of speech and religion.”

Arnaz Carter-Newman, 17, of Reston, who attends Cedar Lane High School, worked with a Positivity Project. “We just hope to pass on the message that no one should be having a bad day. Everyone should be having a better day; everyone should be in a better mood,” he said. “When you produce negative energy, then other people around you want to produce negative energy. When you produce positive energy, you start spreading positive energy and then everyone around you gets more happy.”

Breshna Haider, 17, of Centreville, who attends Westfield High School, works with the school’s Muslim Student Association. “We work really hard to partner with other organizations like the Adams Center of Sterling, and we want to promote more positive energy; we want people to be aware of what we do and get rid of the bad connotations from being a Muslim,” she said.

Kimberly Schmaus, 18, of Chantilly, who attends Chantilly High School, helped to promote peace in the community. “I raised awareness about diversity in the community to try and promote peace. I urged others in the community to do the same because it’s like a ripple effect; if one person starts it, it will have an effect on everyone else,” she said.

Alvin Kim, 17, of Annandale, who attends Annandale High School, worked with NAKASEC – The National Korean and American Service and Education Consortium. “I lobbied and worked towards immigrant rights and immigrant opportunities and also helping to improve the community around Annandale,” he said. “I did stuff like protesting for DACA, which was an Executive Order by President Obama back in 2012, and I also went to our U.S. senators such as Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to ask for their help in our cause .… We went around our school and our neighborhoods asking for petition signatures so that our representatives, both senators and House members, that they know that we care and that it is important to us that these needs are met.”

Janan Iranbomy, 17, of Falls Church, who attends Marshall High School, served on the Fairfax County Student Human Rights Commission and was president of Marshall’s Amnesty International group. “I started a Fairfax County campaign called the ‘Embrace Diversity Campaign’ where we involved all students from Marshall and other Fairfax County high schools to have a campaign to unite the diverse community that we have in Fairfax County and just celebrate the unity in the community,” she said.

Ricardo Avalos, 20, of Centreville, a Centreville High Junior, was the first president of the United International Students Association. “I helped immigrant students explore their dreams and make them feel less isolated in the school community, and helped them make more social relationships with students in the school so they don’t feel that isolated with the students surrounding them,” he said. “I personally experienced this because I came to the United States almost three years ago and I felt very isolated.”

Katie Oliveira, 18, of Vienna, who attends James Madison High School, is one of the presidents of Madison’s Amnesty International group along with Allison Janowski. “We worked really hard this year to do a ‘Write for Rights Campaign’ at our school, which is one of Amnesty International campaigns to get prisoners of conscience released from prison internationally,” she said. “And we also led some debate days which we tried to promote healthy discussion within our school from many different groups of people in the school to create a healthy debate and a safe space for people to speak their mind.”

Kameron Clarke, 17, of Alexandria, who attends West Potomac High School, initiated a Police Relations Seminar at the school. “Me and my Combatting Intolerance Class are planning it. We’re hoping to get two police officers from the Fairfax County Police Department and a defense lawyer to come and talk to students about how to interact with the police safely to prevent police brutality and just better relationships between students, the community and the police officers,” she said.

Bryan Brito, 21, of Centreville, who attends Mountain View High School, does volunteer work relating to immigration and Latin culture. “I’ve been pretty involved in it because I myself was an immigrant and undocumented in many different aspects. I had the same situation that many of the people that I’m helping now. I’m on the board of directors of the CIF — Centreville Immigration Forum. I am like the voice of them — I acknowledge the needs of my community and things that we can do and projects that we can accomplish,” he said.

Nahom Dagnachew, 16, of Springfield, who attends Annandale High School, works with NAKASEC to promote immigrant rights. “When DACA was repealed, we did a lot of actions and sit-ins in Congress in order to promote DACA. In the last Virginia election, we also did a lot of voting promotion. We’re trying to get the voter turnout high. We managed to increase Asian turnout by 195 percent for the 2017 Virginia election. Right now, we’re working on getting a clean Dream Act approved,” he said.