InLight


Exploring Cultures.
Lifting Voices.
Interrogating Injustices.


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MISSION OF INLIGHT





InLight is a student led platform for dialogue that explores cultures, lifts voices and interrogates injustices. Contributors narrate their own stories, shedding light on their experiences, customs, politics, and the social issues of their communities. We hope to expand the cultural lens of our readers, providing a shock to complacency and antidote to intolerance. Our goal is to foment empathy and inspire action within our youth, across our schools and in our greater society.



Why InLight? Stories matter.







“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and humanize,” explains Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her TED Talk The Danger of a Single Story. This sentiment is especially true when individuals, specifically students, tell their own stories about their identity, communities, and experiences. InLight magazine is dedicated to creating a space for students to share those stories. By sharing diverse perspectives and experiences, we hope that articles can help raise readers’ awareness about lived realities other than their own. Students can gain the network, knowledge and empathy to stand at each other's borders and stand up for what matters.


Students are often told they are the leaders of tomorrow, but as we learned from the Civil Rights Movement we are the leaders of today. Adichie concludes her TED Talk by saying, “when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story…we regain a kind of paradise.” Let us work together to eradicate single stories and begin building that paradise in our schools and in our society. Stories matter – partner with InLight and help make them heard.



HOW ARE WE DIFFERENT?







InLight magazine does not try to tell the story of the “other.” Instead, the articles in InLight, whenever possible, attempt to tell the story of the “self.”

In telling their own stories, authors bravely present pieces that allow readers to go beyond the headlines and understand what authors see, hear, and feel. Their personal stories, written in conjunction with larger statistics and within historical contexts, work to explain greater narratives in our country. It is important to note, however, that each article is written through the lens of one person and does not necessarily represent the viewpoints or experiences of an entire community. Through the articles and artwork highlighted on InLight's platform, readers can see the beauty and reality of one another's experiences, identities, heritages, and cultures.​



our founders





Recent high school graduates Max and Sam Strickberger founded InLight magazine in the fall of 2014. Shortly after matriculating at Sidwell Friends School of Washington, DC in ninth grade, Max and Sam were struck by the school’s diverse student body and realized the importance of participating in and valuing such a community. At their former school, a Jewish day school, they learned the urgency of standing up against injustice, and at Sidwell they discovered the power of stepping back to listen to others. InLight stemmed from those ideals.

At their high school, there were school publications for news, comedy, and literary and art, but -- like high schools nationally -- there was not a forum devoted to diversity and the exploration of students’ cultures and experiences. InLight was created to fill that void. ​


Our vision





Our vision is that high schools nationwide will become a part of the InLight community. By using InLight’s publication format and website, together we can create a nationwide partnership where students – hearing directly from other students – can delve into different cultures and topics surrounding social injustice. We see this expansion occurring in three components. First, schools, like almost a dozen in the DC area have started to do, can create their own InLight publication (we have resources to make this process simple and accomplishable). Second, students can collaborate on an annual interschool issue with other regional schools, as proved successful in DC. Third, schools can contribute to the InLight website, which will connect students from around the country. As a student in Arizona describes her experience with immigration, one in Alabama discusses mass incarceration and one from New York City highlights a recent religious holiday. Distant issues are made personal.



OUR REACH



Students Reached



Stories Told



Schools Involved



OUR RECOGNITION



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American Scholastic Press
Association "First Place with Special Merit" (2016)



American Scholastic Press
Association "Best Service to Community" (2016)



Project of Recipient of
Princeton Prize in Race Relations (2016)



Featured in the National Association of Independent School's Independent School Magazine



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INLIGHT | Exploring Cultures. Lifting Voices. Interrogating Injustices.


A Diversity Magazine