Having to work since a very young age, my father didn’t have access to the educational opportunities I have been fortunate enough to be privy to. He instilled in me this love for learning, to take school seriously in order to equip myself with the tools and skills I would need to succeed, to make something of myself.
Every time men at home talked over me or invalidated my arguments because of my gender, it mirrored each time a boy at school did. But I quickly realized that this conditioning wasn’t only impacting me, it was also impacting the way my brother views women and his role in society.
Meet our 21-22 Calafia fellows! Calafia is yli’s statewide youth policy journal that amplifies the narratives of young people on topics and issue areas important to them and their communities
My name is Harnoor Gill (she/her/hers) and I am 18 years old. I am also an incoming student at UC Berkeley. Hayward, California feels like home, but honestly, a part … Continued
“Perspectives” is one of my favorite words. As life goes on, we don’t have the same standards, conversations, jobs. Things change every single day. With those changes, we need different plans, and we won’t have good plans unless we include different people with different experiences.
It took this last opportunity to step into the role of CEO at yli for me to see that my identities truly matter. I have to step into them and own them and amplify them, so that others can see themselves in me.
I think youth should be able to vote on policies and laws that directly affect us. We can’t get the best results if we don’t include the input of every age group. Young people need to continue to speak out – to claim our right to freedom of speech to speak our minds.
I believe that it’s really important to push yourself beyond your comfort zone and seek out the lessons you have to learn. And I think my generation is really equipped to do that. From what I see, we’re a lot more open minded, inclusive, and willing to fight to make sure we can be ourselves.
