Laconia junior accepted to ACLU Summer Advocacy Institute

LACONIA — Laconia High School junior Kadidja Conde has been accepted into the American Civil Liberties Summer Advocacy Institute at Georgetown University this summer.

According to their website, students at this institute will "explore the complex nature of defending and advancing civil liberties as well as contend with the importance of these freedoms in our current society. Students will be immersed in the real world of political and legal decision making in Washington, D.C., meeting with elected officials and journalists as well as participating in workshops with civil rights pioneers and current youth activists." This year's keynote speakers include Anthony Romero, the director of the ACLU; Edward Snowden, whistleblower; Cristina Jiménez, the managing director of United We Dream, and Jamilah Lemieux, the senior editor of Ebony magazine.

Conde said she is very excited for this opportunity. As part of the advocacy institute, she must prioritize the issues on which she will be working; for her, this was a near-impossible task. Regarding this task, she said, "It was so hard for me. There is a combination of important social justice issues that I believe need to be addressed: Equal pay for women, black-on-white police violence, civil rights for members of the LGBT community and anti-Muslim discrimination are all important social justice issues to me. I think that across the board, all four of these points are important to me because I am a female who believes in equality between men and women. I am also an African American citizen who sees a recurring problem in police crime involving race. I have friends and family members who are affected by the oppressive laws passed regarding LGBT members and finally, more than 50 percent of my family is Muslim and we all see a problem with the nonexistent need to be afraid of a religious group in our country."

Her teacher, Ivy Leavitt-Carlson, found out about the program and urged Conde to apply. Leavitt-Carlson said "Kadidja was the first person to come to mind. She will take the skills she will learn through this program and run with them. She is not afraid to question a point that someone else makes, but she does this in a nonthreatening, almost disarmingly cordial manner. Consequently, those that she disagrees with find themselves able to hear her point and defend their perspective without feeling attacked. Kadidja listens carefully, she asks probing questions, and she presents her side in a way that engenders respectful discourse."

Leavitt-Carlson said that she had not heard of the ACLU when she was in high school and hopes that this experience will give Kadida a jump start into a career in politics and law.

Conde said she is "looking forward to being able to further pursue studies of these social issues at the ACLU program this summer, and hopefully learning about actual ways to fight inequality of any kind in this nation."

Kadidja Conde, left, has been accepted into the American Civil Liberties Summer Advocacy Institute at Georgetown. She is shown with Laconia High School teacher Ivy Leavitt-Carlson, who urged her to apply for the program. (Courtesy photo)