URBAN SPOTLIGHT: Brendan Underwood
URBAN SPOTLIGHT: Brendan Underwood
Brendan Underwood Freshman | Saint Louis University High
Brendan Underwood is currently a member of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ NULITES chapter and is also a freshman at Saint Louis University. Brendan has participated in many NULITES activities this year through the Project Ready Program, including the“ Your Voice Matters Video Project,” and the 2015 National Urban League Youth Leadership Summit. Besides his active engagement with the Urban League, he is very interested in helping cultivate a better community.
Recently, Brendan hosted a leadership summit at his school. The summit called for students in attendance to look within themselves and identify what kind of leader they were. This was a very successful event as students from 8 different schools in the Saint Louis area were in attendance. Brendan was a speaker during this summit, but played a key role in inviting, Dr. Jason Purnell, to be the keynote speaker to discuss the adult perspective of what a leader looked like in these times.
Saint Louis University High School his former school was impressed with Brendan so much that they nominated him to speak at the Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice in Washington D. C. After being selected to be a speaker for this event, he had the opportunity to deliver his remarks in front of 1,300 students. His speech, entitled“ My Awakening to Racial Issues and Racial Justice,” addressed racial issues and how the formation of community is a key solution to many of the world’ s issues including racism. At the end of this school year, Brendan is looking forward to transitioning into college.
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