I'm a senior at Platteville High School. Growing up in Platteville has been a very good experience for me. You go to Walmart and you see everybody you know. If you bump into someone you're like, ‘Oh. Sorry, my bad,’ then you get into a whole entire conversation about your life. All the teachers know my name and I say hi to everybody. I've always been a big Platteville girl, I love it here.
Emelia Thelemann | Platteville, WI
I like to talk to strangers and get to know them, I think it’s extremely important to learn more about others. During these conversations I learn more about them and about their role in the community. Then I tell them what I want to do, which is make Platteville more inclusive, more united, more friendly. I know there’s always going to be things that divide us. Of course. And there’s always going to be conversations that make people uncomfortable, conversations people don’t want to have. But I think it’s all about coming together as a community and uniting. Having those conversations that make you uncomfortable. Oftentimes you learn the most from having a little sit down and being like, ‘Here’s what I think. What do you think?’ That can really foster a great connection with other people in your community.
You can hear Emelia describing why her teacher Emily Zachary is such a role model for her.
I have a teacher, Mrs. Zachary, Emily Zachary. She is my biggest role model and I love her so much. I had her sophomore year. And right away, she said, ‘If anyone ever needs anything …’. I know that all teachers say that, but she said, ‘come to me.’ And that’s exactly what we would do. A friend of mine is biracial. She’s had experiences in school that weren’t necessarily the best. Many people are just saying things, but don’t intend it to be disrespectful. But it is disrespectful. They intend their words to either be funny or to not cause harm, but the impact of the words do cause harm. It’s hard because a lot of people still don’t want to learn. My friend and I would go to Mrs. Zachary, and say, ‘Here’s what’s happening. Here is what we want done.’ And then, she would make that happen. She would grab the other kid that was maybe saying a racist comment or something, and she would make that happen. Mrs. Zachary has always strived for making high school the best experience possible for everyone and that’s how the Diverse Student Alliance (DSA) got started.
DSA is a place for all students to feel seen and heard and understood. And that’s what we strive for at Platteville high school. We want all students to feel welcome when walking into the building because high school is not easy. Not everybody wants to be here. So, I would say that our role is making sure that everybody feels comfortabl and wants to come to school. We want everybody to feel safe coming to school. When DSA started my freshman year we started with nine people and now I think we’re up to eighty-five members.
It’s controversial to talk about whether Platteville is accepting and inclusive. I believe that treating other people with kindness shouldn’t be controversial, and it shouldn’t have anything to do with politics. I think it has to do with kindness. I think it has to do with the intention of your words. But unfortunately, that’s how our world is today. And Platteville, sometimes, shows that. I think that I, as well as many other students, are definitely trying to strive to make it more inclusive for people. I’ve had a very good experience in Platteville, and I’m trying to make it the same for others.
My dad works with social service and my mom is a police officer on UW-Platteville campus. They're just overall amazing people and they are the ones who have taught me to continue educating myself on differences and the hardships other people might face. They're really big on kindness and treating other people with kindness regardless of how they've treated you.
Emelia describes the activities of the Diverse Student Alliance and their mentorship project.
The Diverse Student Alliance (DSA) meets once a month. Every monthly meetup is themed for specific months like Black Heritage Month. We discuss what we want to see happen in the school and then we talk about that month, what it means, how it affects people, what it includes. And then, afterwards, we talk about that subject, share our experiences, share how we can change other people’s experiences to be more positive. And a lot of the time, students who aren’t in DSA will come to learn about that because they’ve had an instance where maybe they were told, something they said was not right. And then, we’ll be like, ‘Hey, we’re talking about this. If you want to join, you can come.’ And they join to educate themselves, which is great to see.
DSA has also given high school students an opportunity to be a mentor for students that are younger. So we go to the middle school. We go to both of our elementary schools. And you get paired with a student who has similar interests or is struggling in a subject that you do well in.
We have book talks where we go the elementary school and read a book about diverse cultures and how to respect those cultures. We’ve had teachers tell us, ‘This is making a difference.’ One teacher told us that their kid doesn’t show up to school as much as they should, but they make sure to show up every Friday because that is when their mentor comes to see them, comes to help them, comes to talk. It’s just great to give those younger students a role model, someone to look up to. I think we’re helping these kids out in a way, so they know the struggles that other people go through. They can be more mindful.
I never had that when I was younger. I never had high school students come talk to me. I didn’t even know what culture meant. We never read any books about Black History Month or about people in different communities. We never knew about that stuff. We knew about the ocean. We knew about different colors and shapes, but I feel like we never learned anything that was important to the community.
Knowing that you have other people in your community that understand you and look out for you. It’s good to have. And I think it’s actually drawn people into Platteville. Before, I would say it was more of one group. And now, it’s great to see that other cultures are coming here and that they feel comfortable. We have had feedback that Platteville is a great place to be, and I would say that students in the high school definitely have impacted that, especially DSA. I think just creating this big group where it’s celebrating our differences can really make an impact on Wisconsin as a whole.
Being a leader in DSA has honestly been kind of eye-opening because I always picture things in my own shoes. So it’s cool to hear about another person’s story and picture all of their challenges throughout life and how I’ve pretty much had it easy. It’s really eye-opening to see that others haven’t always had it as easy as me, and that I should be thankful for what I have. And it’s just, it’s good to unite with other people and have those conversations.
I haven’t really had the time to step back and actually realize how far I’ve come, not only as a person, but also as a leader in DSA. It’s kind of neat how people my age can come to me about specific problems and ask, ‘What’s your viewpoint on this? What should I do about this? Have you heard about this? Maybe we should touch base.’ It really is cool that I’m making those connections with students and can have a positive impact on my peers.
I’m only a student. I’m one of, I would say 500 students, and it’s cool to know that I actually have an impact. You’re never too young to learn about new things, new cultures. My advice is to reach out. Talk to people that you wouldn’t have talked to before. Communicate and learn.
Emelia’s story was produced by Issac Wasserman. Her story is part of our “Civic Health Heroes” series produced in collaboration with Urban Rural Action and the Civic Health of Wisconsin Initiative, with support from the Schlecht Family Foundation.
Urban Rural Action brings together Americans across divides to tackle our nation’s most urgent challenges.
The Civic Health of Wisconsin initiative is dedicated to strengthening current civic health efforts around Wisconsin, to spur innovation and foster more connected and engaged communities.
