Harriton Junior Spending Semester in DC

Harriton High School junior Abri Bernstein is spending this semester at The School For Ethics & Global Leadership. She is the only Harriton student in the program; in fact, she is the first student from Pennsylvania to enroll.

Each week the 24 students have a different global case study and hear guest speakers, work with experts and one another to come up with solutions and learn how to think ethically, Bernstein told Patch.

She takes all of her high school classes, but in the program she will focus her efforts on genocide intervention policy.

When Bernstein moved to the Bryn Mawr area for high school, she brought the idea of Gems NOT Genocide, an organization that she founded in 7th grade after watching a documentary that inspired her to do something about the ongoing genocide in Darfur.  

"A few friends and I started the club and it is now one of the biggest clubs at Harriton with four committees (fundraising, jewelry making, advertising and most importantly awareness).  We are currently funding the Gangy High School in Darfur which opened up through the Darfur Peace and Development Organization," she said.

Last summer she traveled to Rwanda with Carl Wilkens, the only American to stay in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

She has just been accepted into Ann Power Vital voices initiative and will be attending a convention in DC and attending the JFK presidential awards and meeting with women leaders around the world and creating a network.