Meara Isenberg

staff writer

@mearaannee

Junior Jesse Jun was scrolling through her instagram feed when a certain post caught her eye. Her friend had taken a picture of a bracelet captioned with its significance in a campaign called Me to We.

This spark of interest would eventually lead current president Jun to form her own Me to We club at Coppell High School.

At first with only a caption to guide her, she began her research on the organization, which is one branch in a family of three under We.org.

“I looked at up and got more into it and I saw how big of an impact Me to We has had on different countries in this world and the different families who are not as fortunate as we are here,” Jun said.

She proposed the idea to start a club to raise money for less fortunate Africans to English III teacher Mr. Holmes at the beginning of the year.

“I thought it would be really cool to have students get the opportunity to make an impact not only in the community but around the world,” Jun said.

Holmes had never sponsored a club before, but thought Me to We was a great first opportunity. What interested him most was the global focus that the club offered.

“One of my goals is to try to bring in global lessons to my students this year, so I was really optimistic when I heard about it,” Holmes said. “I thought ‘cool, this is an awesome project that will help people and it will also hopefully help me open up my perspectives to what’s going on in the world.’”

Although there are many ways that the club could have chosen to make an impact, it is currently focusing on water purification.

“The way Me to We functions is you have a list of possible ways you could be giving back to the world, and we specifically chose to work with water wells in Africa,” Holmes said. “We are going to be raising money to try and build a well over there.”

To raise money for these African families, the club uses fundraisers such as ‘We Create Change,’ where students collect loose change around the school, and the current fundraiser- Rafiki or “friend” bracelets, which offer education to a child every time one is sold.

“You sell Rafikis and you get to track what the money went to, so if I buy a Rafiki, I can track who exactly I help, like the person, the picture and their name and everything,” Jun said. “You actually get to physically see your impact.”

So far a challenge that the club has faced is finding new members to join. Jun understands the important role students play in connection to the people being helped.

“I was hoping that more students would be encouraged to use this club as an opportunity to help people who are not as fortunate as we are,” Jun said. “It’s not only adults that we’re helping, but students just like us, people our age. It would be cool for us to get enough money for support an entire family for an entire year.”

Junior Hannan Sylla, a friend of Jun’s, became involved in the club before it was just an idea. Now, a few weeks after the club was launched, she is excited to start contributing.

“Since there have been only a few meetings, we haven’t been able to fully delve into issues and actually start the activities yet, but once the school year gets going and we are more into it, and we have more meetings, we will definitely be able to partake in those activities,” Sylla said.

As far as expanding, Sylla believes that as more people join, the club can only get better.

“I like the people, it’s mainly our group of friends right now so it’s pretty fun, but once it starts expanding we will get to meet more people,” Sylla said. “The more the merrier.”

Aside from helping Africans, Mr. Holmes sees how this campaign can positively affect students contributing as well.

“I’m hoping that gets them outside of the ‘Coppell bubble’, that it let’s them realize that there’s a lot more going on in the world, and also hopefully be appreciative of what an awesome environment we have here, and to have the opportunity to give back is even greater,” Holmes said.

After it gets off its feet, Holmes is looking forward to what the club has in store for Coppell.

“It’s at it’s conception right now, it’s just begun,”  Holmes said. “I hope that it gains more momentum. The next thing for Me to We is to grow its membership and start making an impact by finding more people to help make that impact.”

The Me to We club meets every other Monday in Mr. Holmes’ room, C235. If you have any questions about the club or are interested in joining, please contact Jesse at [email protected].