Scotia-Glenville High School students Nick Pedone, Alex Bellotti, Jason Battaglia and Caleb Feinberg presented compassionate ideas at the fourth annual Elevating Student Voices Youth Summit. They discussed their current projects and future plans to make the school community more inclusive.

More than 100 students from 21 school districts throughout the Capital Region gathered for this event at Proctors Theatre. This year’s theme centered around student leadership in action, focusing on empowering students to educate their peers about cultural diversity, raise awareness to combat microaggressions and create inclusive environments for all.

“Elevating Student Voices is a remarkable program that has inspired our Scotia students to form a student-lead group called, Empowering Cultural Inclusion,” said the Director of Physical Education and Dean of Students Jamian Rockhill. “Throughout the year, the committee met with the goal of creating and maintaining a positive shared culture in the school. This initiative was exemplified by the group’s Tartan Citizenship Challenge, where students volunteered to serve meals at the City Mission. The high school staff is thoroughly impressed with the efforts of these servant leaders.”

Michael Saccocio, the CEO and executive director of the City Mission of Schenectady, delivered the summit keynote. He emphasized the importance of looking beyond the surface, saying, “One of the keys to diversity and inclusivity is daring to look beyond what’s obvious into the heart of things. I realized something very wonderful about human nature: the deeper we delve into our own hearts and stories, the more we discover what we have in common.”