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Gulliver Prep senior Sophia Bonanno spent weeks contacting Indigenous tribes within the continental U.S. to create a database called Beyond Land Acknowledgment. It’s a listing of tribal, statewide and national organizations, about 380 in total.
The goal is to actualize support for Indigenous communities by encouraging attendees of events with land acknowledgements to directly support the Indigenous people they are acknowledging by donating to organizations which support these communities.
“Land acknowledgements are ceremonial components of events where a member of the tribe will acknowledge the Indigenous communities who served as the residents and stewards of the land long before the United States existed,” she says.
Basically, a land acknowledgement is a statement announcing which tribe originally owned the land that the event is being held on. It can also be placed in printed material.
“I am Indigenous,” she says.
She is part of the Sault Saint Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan.
“When a person gives a land acknowledgement, they can encourage the attendees of the event to go to landacknowledgement.info and look up the tribe,” she says. “If the tribe accepts direct donation, that information will be included.”
When she contacted the tribes, she also asked for additional organizations that support them so she could include that information as well.
“I am trying to contact organizations to try to encourage them to use it,” she says.
The website is still a work in progress as she is waiting on responses from organizations.
“And I’ll still be on the lookout for organizations to add to the website that people can donate to,” she says. “I want to include tribes in Alaska and Hawaii as well.”
Bonanno is also passionate about climate justice.
“I worked with This is Zero Hour, which is a climate justice organization, to host a national virtual rally during COVID to advocate for sustainable infrastructure,” she says.
She also created a program called Zero Hour 101 to teach new members how to effectively mobilize young people.
She is part of the Gen Cleo network.
“I did a research project with them on air quality within my community,” she says. “I wrote an Op Ed and met with my council member – Patrick Fiore.”
For two years, she’s worked on a research study at the University of Miami.
“We studied Climate Anxiety in undergrads and which traits caused them to not be paralyzed by their anxiety and to engage in pro-environmental behavior,” she says. “We found that mindfulness is helpful.”
She and some friends developed a curriculum for elementary students called Students for Environmental Education and Discovery.
“It was included in MDPS Earth Week curriculum,” she says.
At Gulliver she’s a member of the Environmental Club.
“We host various events to educate people about environmental issues,” she says. “We have a thrifting event to encourage people to not to support fast fashion.”
She is also in the Promotions of Women’s Equal Rights club. She founded and is president of the Secular Student Alliance.
“We hold discussions about secular principles and humanism, and we have community service events,” she says. “Because my school has a Christian Student Union and a Jewish Student Union. I wanted us to have a space for secular students as well.”
She’s a member of the Science National Honor Society, the English National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Rho Kappa and the Computer Science National Honor Society.
She applied to Stanford University, the University of Miami, the University of Florida, the University of Michigan and Dartmouth. She’s already been accepted to the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her major is Environmental Policy.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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