Friends Academy Students Attend the Quaker Youth Leadership Conference

Every year, a small cohort of Upper School students travel to the annual Quaker Youth Leadership Conference, which brings together multiple Quaker schools throughout the country and world to explore topics inspired by their Quaker testimonies. Last year’s all-virtual conference drew attendees as far away as Ramallah Friends School in Palestine.

Six students from Friends Academy attended the Feb. 3-5th QYLC including, Angelina Miller ’22, who clerks the Upper School TASQUE (Teachers and Students for Quaker Understanding and Education) Committee, TASQUE Recording Clerk Isabella Sha ’23, TASQUE Meeting for Worship Calendar Clerk Heidi Brown ’23, TASQUE Alternative MFW Coordinator Charlotte Knight ’24, Senuli Peiris ’24, and Sarah El-Gamal ’25. 

This year, host school Friends Central School, located just outside of Philadelphia in Wynnewood, PA, welcomed a mix of visiting in-person and virtual students and faculty. The conference’s theme, “Seeking Equity through Stories,” featured Keynote Speaker and architect, set designer, music video/commercial director, and graphic/interior designer Ron Norsworthy, who shared his story up growing up Black and gay in homogenous midwestern communities. 

Students and adults attended daily Meetings for Worship, engaged in service activities, and brainstormed and participated in various affinity spaces as they learned and practiced how “stories can help us understand ourselves and others better.”