Alice Wilder, 20, is  is from North Carolina and is in her third year at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Alice has been with SPARK Movement since 2012. She’s also on the board of national nonprofit Girls for a Change and the Opinion Editor for the Daily Tar Heel You can follow her on Twitter @Alice_Wilder.

Aviv Rau, 18, is a freshman at Wesleyan University, where she hopes to study Sociology and Middle Eastern Studies. Originally from Atlanta (by way of Ohio and Florida), Aviv is the co-founder of the Feminist Youth Coalition of Atlanta (FYCA). Aviv is especially passionate about sexual violence prevention and young girls’ empowerment. She hopes to someday incorporate these passions, along with her interest in conflict resolution, into her career. In the meantime, though, you can find Aviv on the internet, arguing passionately about social issues or in real life, standing up to (and occasionally intimidating) men twice her age/size with way more credentials than her.

Brenda Guesnet, 22, is doing an MFA at Goldsmiths College in London and believes that art can help us imagine a world in which things are different than they are. She’s passionate about defending the things she loves against neoliberal capitalist exploitation and is also really into Keeping Up With the Kardashians and expanding her make-up collection. She hopes that SPARKArtists can help to break with the white male dominance of the art world by highlighting the inspiring artistic practice of women and girl artists.

Courtney Fulcher,16, is a high school student in Michigan. Off the internet, she is involved in Cross Country, volunteering, Ethics Bowl, and Theater.  She loves writing, reading, and analyzing punchlines. You can usually find her comparing her life to Lindsay Weir’s. This is her third year with SPARK.

Elisabed Gedevanishvili, 17, is from the country of Georgia. Mostly obsessed with everything, she lives in a world of confusion and excitement. She’s currently taking a break (aka gap year) from the hard work and sleepless nights that took away 12 (!) years of her life, and hopes to dedicate this year to things she enjoys doing. In general, If she’s not dancing, arguing, art-making or sleeping Eli is volunteering, working (hopefully), preparing for European Youth Parliament’s another session, or reminiscing about her foreign exchange year in the land of corn- South Dakota. She has very little plans for the future and hopes to travel around the world. You can read her autobiography in twenty years or check-out her Tumblr instead.

Jazmin Martinez, 21, is a first generation college student in her junior year at California State University Long Beach, where she majors in Women’s and Gender Studies. She’s originally from the Eastern Coachella Valley where she still likes to return to sometimes organize community projects and be present for other events community members put on. When not freaking out about figuring out how to “adult” she enjoys reading, spending time with her dog Oona, and mastering her make-up / fashion game, which you can track on most social media sites @jazminbobby.

Joneka Percentie, 20,  is a junior at UNC Charlotte and is passionate about the representation of Black women in the media. When she’s not working with SPARK, she enjoys blogging with For Harriet, singing with her sisters, and dancing along to Beyoncé concert videos. Joneka hopes to encourage teen girls to express themselves through writing and art and embrace their amazingness.

Mariah Hall, 21, is a senior at Michigan State University studying Neuroscience and Anthropology. Driven to stop living in a society riddled with rape culture, she is the Political Outreach Chair for the MSU Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention team and is trained as an in-crisis advocate. She advocates for victims and survivors of sexual assault and educates against the rape myths and victim blaming ingrained in our society’s mindset. She has a passion for raspberries, decolonizing the mind, ending the patriarchy and dismantling white supremacy. She also enjoys long walks on the beach with her dog, Cocoa.

Montgomery Jones, 22, is a student from Michigan trying to use this year to figure out she wants to do in life.  This is her third (and final) year of SPARK, and she is also a girl scout leader, YMCA camp counselor/after school supervisor, and an intern for She’s So Boss.  She enjoys traveling, reading, activism, hiking, and getting to know new people.  Not to mention, Netflix.  You can follow her twitter page where she talks about her love of Taylor Swift and FKA Twigs at @montgomeryjones .

 SPARK Action Squad Leaders 

Daniela Fernádez Wong Kit, 19, was born in Ecuador and now lives in Mexico. As a kid, she experienced the path of being different: the isolation, the mocking, the powerless feeling—because she is latina, because she has Chinese ancestry, because she’s a woman, because she’s different. But now she embraces all those things that she used to hate, and they make her feel good and beautiful. She won’t tolerate that someone feels the things she used to feel, and does her best to fight for respect, tolerance and equality for everyone. She wants to study something related to ecology in Germany, and keep being an active feminist, pro-LGBT, vegetarian seeking for peace for everyone and everything.

Ejin Jeong, 15, is a sophomore in High School in Pennsylvania and widely expresses her passion for feminism through heated discussions and writing. Having discovered her feminist passion through the desire for empowerment of teenage girls in high schools, she utilizes writing as a tool to spread her message and to connect with other people. She has started Girl Up and UNICEF clubs at her school, and hopes to spread awareness and call action upon students in her school to recognize the oppression of women in society and the importance of feminism. Ejin is currently working on an online blog, Shoes Telling Stories in order portray the stories of the homeless in Philadelphia through social media in order to combat misconceptions they face and to give them a voice. She strives to approach awareness through photography and writing as a means of connecting people.

Maram Elnagheeb, 17, is a high school senior and an ambitious, passionate advocate. She immerses herself in any cause she can such as UNICEF, girls’ education in the developing world (Girl Up), and other global and social issues. At her school, Maram leads the Girl Up club and UNICEF club. Her biggest passions are human rights and journalism. She writes for Her Culture, Miss Heard magazine, and Hello Flo. She loves developing projects to solve current issues. Recently Maram has developed a project to use media as a platform to defy stereotypes and is partnering with a local nonprofit to execute this special program. She is driven, optimistic, and she hopes to see a world where everyone has human rights and the ability to live a happy, prosperous life. Her hobbies include binge watching anything great, singing dramatically, playing games (that are fun), and playing basketball.

Shaye Lynn DiPasquale, 18, is a self-described activist and advocate for girl’s rights and empowerment. She founded a United Nations Girl Up chapter at her high school to help raise funds and awareness about girls across the globe and their rights. Shaye is a graduate of the Young Women’s Leadership Institute run by NJ Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande and the Running Start Political Leadership Program. In college, Shaye will be pursuing Communications and Media studies as well as Gender Studies and International Affairs as minors. Shaye is actively involved in both volunteerism and furthering her career in the media industry. She writes about music, teen activists, women’s issues and fashion for Her Culture, Substream Magazine, She Speaks Media, GirlUp.org and various other print and online publications. Her life goals include learning to play guitar, working on PR and promotions for a famous band and igniting a passion within others to aspire to be the best they can be.