Spark is just the first step in Anna & Katie’s grand plan to save the world.
Anna Becker and Katie Kenney are Honors Fellows at Elon University in North Carolina with particular interests in human rights, environmental issues, and general liberal politics. At the PowerShift ’09 conference, these two activists decided to join forces, combining their interests in international and environmental studies to put out an entertaining and informative publication with the hopes of influencing young people to take action on these issues.
SPARK - a liberal revolution is a web-based publication that strives to educate and inform young people about human rights, environmental, and other current liberal issues as well as culture with the hopes of inspiring action on these issues. The primary goals of Spark are to incite awareness and action in our readers. We hope that Spark will serve to connect the basic tenets of the liberal arts education to real world issues that influence our lives today. This publication will be interdisciplinary, with articles written with the skills of professional writing and communications that dip into such fields as international studies, environmental studies, art, history, human services, political science, sociology, and anthropology.
MEET THE EDITORS:
ANNA BECKER
Anna Becker has been interested and involved in humanitarian activism and liberal politics for several years now,the main focuses of her passion being Zimbabwe, Uganda, and Darfur. Anna has also been involved with Young Democrats groups for the past several years, campaigning for local and national Democratic candidates. Anna is also very passionate about the current climate crisis, and having recently attended PowerShift and getting inspired, she is currently getting involved in a project to help her campus convert to solar power. A self proclaimed concert addict, Anna is a huge fan of live music and musicians with a message and who work for the cause. She has recently begun a summer internship with Calling All Crows, the new nonprofit started by Chad Stokes of Dispatch and State Radio fame, an organization that works towards international human rights especially for women. This tie-dye wearing, peace sign wielding student has dreams of grad school at Northwestern’s Medill School, possibly the Peace Corps, and copious nonprofit work.
KATIE KENNEY
An accident-prone vegetarian and activist who has lived in nine places around the United States in her nineteen years, Katie Kenney is passionate about environmental and international humanitarian issues. Her particular focuses include global warming and its effects on the poor populations of developing countries, environmental conservation and sustainable development, the ongoing genocide in Darfur, and expanding educational opportunities to children in the developing world. Working towards a double major in Professional Writing and Rhetoric and Environmental Studies, Katie is also involved in several campus organizations, including Sierra Club, Students for Peace and Justice, and the Liberal Arts Forum. Additionally, she regularly volunteers with children at the Avalon African Refugee Center in Greensboro and is currently involved in efforts to expand solar energy use on her campus. Despite being hopelessly overinvolved in her various endeavors, Katie manages to find time (largely through procrastination) for her other passions, which include music, photography, literature, movies, and enjoying nature. She has too many ideas to have yet decided on her future career, but she does plan to pursue meaningful work related to environmental and/or humanitarian issues in addition to traveling the world.
Spark is currently operating on a freelance system for its writers. If you have an article idea that you want to cover, shoot us an email! We’d love to get you involved!
sparkpublication@gmail.com
