Ethan Kennedy and Saba Mumladze, two amazing Kadets in Advanced Marketing at AAHS spent the past few months researching and creating their Community Awareness Project, Don't Stand Alone. They created an organization with a website in support of their passion to provide teenagers with the resources they need to combat teen workplace harassment. Listen to their radio interview on KRDO.
When asked for their project inspiration, they replied, "The original idea for the project came from a personal tragedy that impacted both of us (and many of our community members). We wanted to tackle the issue but in the beginning, it seemed too large and intimidating for two high schoolers to confront. Upon doing further research, however, we discovered that many of our peers and teens nationally were experiencing workplace harassment. This fact motivated us to pursue the project in hopes of alleviating a possible future negative experience for even a single survivor."
They mentioned that their most important takeaway from working on this project "was that even though others might not be talking about an issue, it does not mean that it is not negatively impacting the community. Before, we had only rarely heard accounts of teen workplace harassment from our friends, and even then, these incidents were shrugged off as a part of being a teen worker. After realizing that the issue we were considering was negatively impacting numerous individuals, we conducted further research and found that there was practically no comprehensive scientific research conducted on the topic. No one - including professionals - was willing to talk about the subject due to its common, complicated, and uncomfortable nature."
Their "hope for this project is that Don't Stand Alone acts as a catalyst and starts a conversation in our community. We hope to provide as many teens with the necessary tools and resources as possible. As of now, we have given presentations in all of the business classes at AAHS, and we are preparing to present our idea to other schools in the district. We are also currently working on getting more exposure and establishing Don't Stand Alone as a legitimate organization that helps teens combat workplace harassment in a practical manner."
