For a good cause: Jessica Woods

Residents in East Palo Alto may recognize Jessica Woods, even if they don't know her by name. She's the one out canvassing the streets with fliers, asking neighbors to join in efforts to shut down a nearby recycling plant that may be emitting toxic gases during controlled fires. Woods, 16, a junior at Menlo-Atherton High, says she first got involved in causes like this one when she joined Youth United for Community Action (YUCA) as a volunteer over a year ago. Now, they pay her to work three days a week as one of the group's organizers.

Choosing East Palo Alto as the site for a recycling plant in East Palo Alto, she says, is just one example of a statewide pattern of what she terms "environmental racism."

Even a brief conversation with Woods makes it obvious she's not only passionate about her causes, she's also well-informed about what she's up against. Of the 50 dump sites in California, she says, nearly 47 are housed in low-income areas where many of the residents are people of color.

According to her research, East Palo Alto's plant started out as a temporary remedy. But, after the original permit expired, operators filed for extensions, and managed to keep the plant open for about 10 years.

Woods and other members of YUCA had hoped to spur East Palo Alto residents to action by holding meetings that would inform the public about the potential dangers associated with the plants. They hoped the whole neighborhood would join them in a rally at the plant, where they planned to encourage operators to publicly announce upcoming fires, so that residents would know to stay inside or leave town to escape the fumes.

Instead, Woods has found that usually no more than a handful of people will bother to show up at their meetings. The low turnouts don't seem to have dampened Woods' spirit, though--maybe in part because her involvement in YUCA seems to be just one stepping stone on a path toward becoming a lifelong activist.

Although she doesn't argue against the paychecks she's getting, Woods says she would have done it for free.

"It teaches you public speaking, how to facilitate meetings, and fund raising," she says. "It helps you learn how to speak up for yourself and what you believe."

Her activism doesn't stop with YUCA, either. Woods is also a fellow in the Youth Community Service (YCS) program and a member of "City Teens," a community service group that meets once a week to organize events like swing-dancing sessions for senior citizens, and ski trips or visits to Great America for teens. Lately, members have also been negotiating with the city of Menlo Park to build a place for skateboarders in Burgess Park.

In between her community service work and a full day at school, Woods has still made time to be on the track team, competing in shotput and discus events.

On Sundays, after church and a late-afternoon meeting with another group intent on securing rights for youth on an international scale, Woods finishes the evening with a Girl Scout meeting.

Woods, who lives in Menlo Park, grew up with two younger brothers. So, it was her mother who encouraged her to join the Girl Scouts, thinking it might help her become more feminine."I guess I was a tomboy or something," Woods says, laughing.

Through Girl Scouts, Woods learned wilderness survival skills like signaling with fires, building shelters, administering first-aid, and orienteering, and she also worked on merit badges related to leadership and career-building. Now, she's working on a final project that ties together some of these interests and will serve as the final step toward getting her "Gold Award," the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive.

It's hard to say what sparked Woods' activist streak. Her mother has always tried to make a difference, Woods says, and she obviously admires her mother's choice to return to school for a masters degree in criminal justice so she could take a job as a probation officer looking after juvenile offenders.

Woods herself took up the cause of juvenile justice in helping to organize against Proposition 21, an initiative aimed at upping the penalties for juvenile offenders. When voters approved the proposition anyway, Woods shifted her efforts to helping educate youth in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park about the changes in the law and the penalties they could run into if they break the law.

"It's hard for kids," she says. "Instead of trying to rehabilitate them, kids are just being locked up and they throw away the key."

Woods says being part of the RISE program at M-A has had the most influence in helping her to recognize the importance of giving back to her community.

One of the most striking things about Woods is the grace with which she balances pride in her own cultural identity with an appreciation of diversity and difference.

She speaks glowingly about a recent trip she took with other high school students in the area called "Sojourns to the Past." Travelling through the southern United States, largely by bus, Woods and the other students traced key moments in the Civil Rights Movement.

They stopped to see Martin Luther King's birthplace in Atlanta, Georgia and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. where he was shot and killed. In Arkansas, the group walked up the same set of stairs the "Little Rock 9," students took when they tried to enter Central High School following the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling. The school became the focus of national attention when the governor deployed the Arkansas National Guard to keep the black students out, forcing President Eisenhower to retaliate by sending in the military.

"I would recommend it for everyone, no matter what age or what race," Woods said. "It really makes you think."

With college still well over a year away, Woods still has plenty of time to decide what she'll study. Right now, the more difficult decision she faces is whether to attend a black college like Florida A&M or Clark University, or whether to seek out a school where she can find more diversity.

"I like being around multicultural people," she said. "Not that I don't like black people, but I want to learn more about other people, too."

As for her advice to parents: "Give us a chance, and don't prejudge us. We're not all bad--especially kids of color." 

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