When teacher Kristi Billings read about the Bezos Scholar program, she knew, "This is a Josephine thing."
And she was right.
Brown County High School junior Josephine Fields is one of 12 students from across the country to be chosen for the leadership development program.
Billings will serve as a Bezos Scholar Educator, helping Fields along the way.
The two will join students and educators from Virginia, Maine, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Washington and Maryland.
Billings got an email about the program in January.
"I read about it and the focus on community change, that it was specifically for high school juniors. … ‘Successful applicants have a strong commitment to their education and demonstrate maturity, curiosity, grit and leadership,’ Billings read.
"That’s her."
The program "amplifies youth voice and action," according to the website. Scholars will spend a week learning at the Aspen Ideas Festival before returning home to develop "a community change project to make a positive difference in their communities."
<p class=""js-transition">"Once selected, Scholars join a global alumni network where they are offered opportunities to connect, collaborate, get inspired and take action for the greater good," the website says.</p>
Fields founded BCHS group Students for Equity in 2019. Billings serves as the faculty sponsor for that group, whose mission is to “promote equity and inclusion among everyone in Brown County Schools and Brown County as a community regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, socio-economic class, and able-bodiedness.”
"Sometimes I get very passionate and irrational in my thinking, then she rationalizes me," Fields said of Billings. "That’s why we make such a good team for the Bezos Scholar program. We think very alike. I would say not only is she my teacher and my mentor, I would say she is also my friend."
Billings seconds that. When asked to describe Fields, Billings said the first word that comes to mind is tenacious.
"She is by far one of the most tenacious students I have ever had, but in the best way possible. She is a go-getter to the max. Every so often I tell her that I can’t wait to vote for her for President," Billings said.
The initial application process was extensive, requiring Fields to write three essays, nominate Billings as the educator, get a letter of recommendation, then record a two-minute video about herself and why she thought she would be a good fit for the program.
By the time Billings found out about the program and shared it with Fields, there were only five days to turn in an application. Superintendent Laura Hammack gave Fields a letter of recommendation.
She was then named a semifinalist for the program, which meant she had to do a 45-minute virtual interview with the application committee and Principal Matt Stark had to fill out a form on Fields’ behalf.
Fields was officially named a Bezos Scholar in March and it was publicly announced on May 5.
After Fields was selected, Billings also had to do an interview with the application committee "so they could make sure I was going to be a good partner and was invested in her as a Bezos Scholar as well," Billings said.
Five students also were picked from the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Fields and Billings will periodically have Zoom meetings with the other students and educators as the Bezos Scholar program guides them on how to engage in their community change projects this year.
As of now, Fields plans to extend Students for Equity into the larger community, "educating people on why equity and inclusion are important and why it’s an issue not only in our community, but on a broader scale as well," she said.
But part of the program is to not have the project fully formed so that it can be shaped by what scholars will learn in the next year.
In a normal year, Bezos Scholars and Educators would fly out to Aspen, Colorado, to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival, but it will be virtual this year.
<strong>Working for equity</strong>
This is Billings’ eighth year of teaching at Brown County High School and her first year as president of the Brown County Educators Association.
"I’m a thinker and an idea person. That part of life has felt a little stale lately, so I was very excited to be selected for this to get the opportunity to network with people from all over the world and get the experience of attending the Aspen Ideas Festival where it’s all of these incredibly high-profile and innovative people," she said.
"I am proud of Ms. B, because in addition to being the choir director, she also does a million other things," Fields added.
The two have known each other since Fields was in eighth grade and participated in a high school musical. She was in show choir with Billings for two years, too.
Because of everything Fields does with Students for Equity, Billings thought she would be a good candidate to apply.
Fields started Students for Equity after noticing issues during her in time in Brown County related to equity and inclusion. Creating the group was a way to address that.
"I felt like a lot of the issues were very apparent and kind of been ignored by administration. I was like, ‘Well, if administration isn’t going to deal with these issues, then the students, we have a voice, so we should work to combat these issues,’" Fields said.
Fields is passionate about social justice and plans to dedicate her entire life to it, particularly equity in education. She has friends from around the country who have been afforded more educational opportunities because of where they live, and she has friends who have experienced the opposite. Within educational equity are other issues that need to be addressed, Fields said.
"You can’t talk about educational inequity without talking about sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism and classism," she said.
That is also why she started Students for Equity. The group now has 30 members and that number is expected to grow after the group established a reputation with a busy year of activities.
Those activities include a community art build, maintaining an educational bulletin board in the hallway with resources on it, holding a voter registration drive in collaboration with the League of Women Voters, hosting movie nights with movies that examine topics like race and police brutality and writing a column in the Brown County Democrat responding to a yearbook at the incident at the high school where a student was identified as only as "BLACK GUY."
"The main idea of that article was that these issues have continued to be long ignored in our community and Brown County should use this incident, as unfortunate as it is, as a wakeup call to the social justice issues that are going on in our community," Fields said.
The group also held fundraiser drives for undergarments and menstrual products this school year, since not having access or worrying about getting access to either can have a detrimental effect on a child’s education.
The period product drive brought in so many donations that the group was able to give some to Brown County Junior High School and the school nurses. Bathrooms now have baskets full of free pads and tampons. Money raised from that drive will also help to provide new product dispensaries in the girls’ bathrooms next school year that students will not have to pay for them.
In April, the group also had special education teacher Barb Kelp make a presentation on disability awareness. Five members of Students for Equity are in Kelp’s class.
Most recently, the group attended a meeting of the school board to ask for approval of an accountability plan to respond to hate speech and symbols used in schools.
Every week, Students for Equity meets either together or in their four committees focused on community outreach, publicity, logistics and education.
Overall Students for Equity has received positive feedback from the community, including school administrators, Fields said.
"One of the biggest changes I’ve noticed is students are talking about social justice more," she said.
"I don’t know if that’s because of Students for Equity or how social media has mobilized people recently. I noticed a lot more talking about social justice."
There are those who do not support the group, but Fields said they are always willing to work with those people and talk to them about their focus.
The group had a training in March on how to have conversations about equity and inclusion, learning how to respond to those who say something derogatory.
"We live in such a rural community and not everyone has the same information privilege. We really try to focus on educating community members," Fields said.
"We always try to talk to them if they are willing to talk to us."
After high school, Fields wants to attend school somewhere on the East Coast and plans to double-major in education and political science with a minor in gender studies. She wants to work in public education policy.
"I have a bad habit of underestimating myself, but I’m really proud of myself in this circumstance," Fields said of being named a Bezos Scholar.
"It takes a lot for me to say I am proud of myself, but I really am. I have had a lot of disadvantages presented to me in life naturally because of my family circumstances. I like to think that despite those things, I still really try to help others."
