By: Julia Effle –

At Southeast there is a wide variety of students and along with that diversity inevitably  comes stereotypes. Sponsor Carol Moravec reached out to sophomore Alivia Chealey to join African American/Biracial/Multiracial Forum this semester. Chealey is passionate in the fight against stereotypes here at Southeast as well as in the community as a whole, and is ready for a change.

“We want to make Southeast a community where we are raising young individuals who are bright and intelligent and you know we’re taking down stereotypes,” said Chealey. “There happens to be a very negative stereotype when it comes to African Americans or anybody of color. We just want to crash these stereotypes and bring awareness to the good that can come from joining together as a community.”

Although it has racial in name, anyone is allowed to join. Even though there has been multiple African American clubs and forums at Southeast in the past, the African American/Biracial/Multiracial Forum’s goal is to bring back these clubs and get everyone involved.

“We could all benefit as a school because right now there is a lot of division and if we can allow diversity to not cause division but cause unity that would be an incredible thing, especially here in our own school,” said Chealey.

Chealey was excited to join because it is an opportunity to make a change in something she was so passionate about.

“Mrs. Moravec asked me to join and I was excited to,” said Chealey. “I’ve never had people to talk to about it and it’s [racism] not something that has ever happened directly towards me, but I know people who have had that experience and it still affects me a lot, and I think it’s [tolerance] something we can all work towards.”