Astudia provides college students alternative to become involved, with deal with psychological well being
For excessive schoolers and teens in Northern Virginia and past who care about worldly points, Astudia is a spot they will go to study and do one thing about them.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, I started noticing that a lot of my friends were kind of feeling listless, with all this social isolation and all of that, and then also that a lot of them were avoiding the news. And I was thinking of what can I do to kind of make a difference and to make sure that young people are engaging in the world, keeping up with what’s going on — all of that,” mentioned Daliya Rizvi, the president of Astudia.
Rizvi, who can also be a junior in Fairfax County Public Schools, mentioned that whereas Astudia began as a smaller group, they now have greater than 150 members. According to the web site, it’s “an organization that provides teens with opportunities, resources, and online services while empowering them to make a difference in the world.”
Astudia offers numerous digital applications and workshops for younger individuals to take part in, from digital pen friends to the GenZCares program.
“We have a program called GenZCares, which is this online initiative in which we post about global issues, and we have GenZCares ambassadors who repost, help spread awareness about those issues. So we’ve covered things like climate change, the refugee crisis, and much, much more,” Rizvi mentioned.
“We kind of combine what’s going on around the world with what young people are interested in and passionate about. And then we use that to guide the issues that we select to advocate for,” she defined of what Astudia chooses to cowl.
She additionally famous that creating the tutorial features of Astudia for these workshops and initiatives is a workforce effort, saying, “So these students come together, look through reputable sources, and create PowerPoints and games for our workshops because we do want them to be collaborative.”
Astudia has advanced since Rizvi and her vice chairman, Ella Ramchand, labored on it to start with of the pandemic. Now, as an alternative of merely offering updates on information occasions to preserve teens knowledgeable, it’s one thing extra interactive — although evolving got here with challenges.
“I would say that our biggest challenge initially was getting getting our message out there — we stayed quite small for a while. And then once we were able to build up our social media presence and our online presence, it really helped us expand and get a lot more people interested in the work that we were doing,” she defined.
For Rizvi, seeing that she was not the one younger one who cared about points occurring everywhere in the world has been rewarding.
“I think that that was just so wonderful, for me personally, to see because a lot of people who care about specific issues, they feel like they’re alone in caring. It’s so nice to see that there’s a whole community of people out there who really believe and who really care about what’s going on, and they want to make a difference too,” she mentioned.
Rizvi plans on persevering with with Astudia and watching it develop, noting that it will be good to maintain in-person occasions and even create chapters for these concerned all world wide.
For these like her and the Astudia workforce, Rizvi has a message: “If you are a young person out there, who does care about an issue … first of all, know that you’re not alone. Don’t be afraid to do research on the issue. Stay informed, don’t stick your head in the sand.”