Growing up in San Jose, Changeist CEO Mario Fedelin said that the impacts of drugs and violence were prevalent in his early life. A nomination from his brother’s English teacher landed Fedelin at a sleep-away camp in Santa Cruz that introduced him to camp counselor John, who Fedelin said he connected with.
Later in his life Fedelin said he would join Americorps — a volunteer service agency that caters to many sectors — after being inspired by John as he had participated in it. Participation in such a group would provide the foundation to his creation of Changeist, according to Fedelin.
“I thought about my experience that I had when I was 20 and I thought how different would it be if I had that experience when I was 11 where I got to meet people that were different and bump into people that were different and have a dialogue and a discourse together in a physical space,” Fedelin said.
Fedelin said Changeist reviews over 200 applicants and brings together a little less than a 100 youth participants across LA county to consider necessary changes within their area. According to Fedelin, Changeist organizers choose three of the most prevalent issues and work to create a curriculum for their middle school students. High school students get to select an issue of their choosing. According to Fedelin, this year’s most prominent issues were: environmental justice, mental health and immigration.
“The way that our middle school cohort works is our middle school folks get to look at three different issues for three weeks,” Fedelin said. “So let’s say housing is for three weeks, they’ll have a start, middle and an end to the housing unit and then they’ll go into environmental justice for three weeks and then one more for three weeks.”
Though the city is home to over 50,000 non-profit organizations, LA program director and South LA native Davina Runkaputi said Changeist stands out amongst multiple components. For one, where many non-profits work specifically within a certain area, Changeist brings together students from all around LA county, including Northeast LA according to Runkaputi. Additionally, Runkaputi said there are not many spaces whose goal is a youth-led focus on holding conversation around social justice.
“I think that’s what’s important is to be able to bring young folks from all over LA to come together to talk about their identities and where they grew up but also to talk about, oh this is how the things we experience in our community are intersected, but this is also how they’re different and learning more about that,” Runkaputi said. “I think that’s what’s so great is that they get to experience or meet new people because it gets them outside of their bubble and their current community.”
Volunteering as a group leader, Emily Perez (first year) said she understands the uniqueness of the program
“The way they’re organized is very different than other non-profits,” Perez said. “They’re very youth based, they focus on their youth so much most of the time the adults are just there to take care of them.”
Perez said she has learned a lot about herself and youth through volunteering.
“Kids are so smart and they have so many ideas,” Perez said. “I feel like when you learn with kids you learn with them.”
Runkaputi said that the ideal “Changeist” is simply someone willing to be there, for students, be open to holding conversations and connecting.
“Those are the type of Changeists I want,” Runkaputi said. “People that want to show up or that want to learn more and want to be a part of a space that builds community and teamwork.”
Currently, Changeist is recruiting both volunteer members for their weekly Saturday meetings and Americorps members for next fall. Those interested may contact eli@changeist.org
Contact Sheilyn Salcedo ssalcedo@oxy.edu
