2 Moorestown Friends Students Named To Alice Paul Council Board

MOORESTOWN, NJ — Two students at Moorestown Friends School have been named to the Alice Paul Institute Girls Leadership Council Executive Board for the 2020-21 academic year, the school announced.

Senior Kayla Patel and junior Vani Hanamirian were named to the board, which meets once a month to discuss issues affecting women and girls, according to the school.

Council members are interested in leadership, activism, and women’s and girls’ issues on a local, national, and even international level.

During the meetings, students learn how to engage in meaningful conversation on different topics like human rights, gender stereotypes, and intersectionality.

The Alice Paul Institute is named for Alice Paul, a women's rights activist who graduated from Moorestown Friends School at the top of her class in 1901.

She met Lucy Burns and joined the Women's Suffrage Movement while studying social work in England, according to the National Women's History Museum. She helped secure passage of the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. She died in Moorestown in 1977.

The Alice Paul Institute was founded in 1984 to commemorate Paul's 100th birthday. Its goal is to further Paul's legacy and advocacy for women's rights, and takes a leadership role in bringing recognition to organizations and historic sites that honor women, according to the institute's website.

The council meets at the Alice Paul Institute in Mt. Laurel. API is located at historic Paulsdale, the birthplace of Alice Paul.