Homewood-Flossmoor HS Junior Selected for Speaking Honor

Jade Greear, a junior at Homewood Flossmoor High School, has been selected to speak in front of a live audience at the upcoming We Day event on April 30 at the Allstate Arena.

More than 15,000 young people and teachers from over 500 schools are expected to be in the audience of the sold out youth empowerment event. We Day, an initiative of the international charity Free the Children, is designed to celebrate the actions youth are taking in their local and global communities and to inspire change by sharing the passion of world leaders and entertainers, including Selena Gomez, Jennifer Hudson, Common and many more.

Greear, 16, will participate in a three-person presentation entitled “Letter to My Future Self”. The presentation provides a thoughtful, empowering and hopeful look at what can be accomplished through dreams fulfilled.

Giving back to the community has always been a significant part of Greear’s life. Its importance and value was instilled in her at a young age through her family, teachers and community leaders and something she writes about on her blog, Unconventionally Jade.

“I’m excited to be involved in We Day because all my life I have wanted to positively impact my community and inspire others to make a change,” said Greear. “Letter to Your Future Self is an important segment because it is critical that we never forget the importance of looking back as a catalyst to giving back.”

Greear’s leadership experience began in elementary school when she spearheaded her class into raising money for a school garden. “I knew then that positive acts yielded sustainable results,” she said.

As Greear grew, so did her attention to and understanding of the social issues landscape in the United States and abroad. Prior to high school, she got involved with Rachel’s Challenge, a national non-profit dedicated to creating safe, connected school environments. Having been subjected to online and offline bullying, Greear is determined to do whatever she can to prevent others from experiencing it and, if they did, knowing how to address it. Greear has also been active in volunteering with the Human Rights Campaign, Feeding America and Ending Poverty Now, a national anti-poverty initiative. This past January, following the death of a relative via a high-profile and questionable police shooting, she marched with and advocated on behalf of Black Lives Matter, sharing her views on social justice and why all lives matter with media.

In order to earn their way to We Day, students have to commit to taking one local and one global action to better the world through a year-long We Act program. Greear is part of a local We Act group, YOU Matter, founded by her friend and fellow Homewood Flossmoor junior, Destiny Watson. Watson submitted Greear’s service and leadership profile to the We Day production team.

“The name YOU Matter came from one of my favorite motivational speaker’s video,” said Destiny Watson, the founder and leader of YOU Matter. It started off as an Instagram page I created to help prevent suicide, bullying and to spread inspiration to anyone who needed it. When I found that Free the Children’s We Day was finally coming to Illinois, I gathered teens from my high school to complete the actions we needed to do in order to earn our way to We Day.”

Following We Day, Greear and Watson plan on continuing their service work through YOU Matter. Both are making plans to join a Free the Children service trip to help build a school in Kenya next year.

“Giving back doesn’t stop after We Day,” says Greear. “I’m committed to a lifetime of service and giving back.”