Youth Interfaith Awardees Announced

Congratulations to Emelia Weah of Nottingham High School and Ngoc-Lynn Huynh of Henninger High School — recipients of 2021 Women Transcending Boundaries’ Interfaith Achievement Awards. This thousand dollar award is given to a graduating Syracuse City School District senior in recognition of her commitment to interfaith and intercultural understanding and inclusion as demonstrated though activities and leadership in her school, faith tradition, and/or wider community.

Emelia Weah of Nottingham High School with award selection committee (l-r): Barb Bova, Sue Savion, Liz Spence, Danya Wellmon, and Carol Lipson
Ngoc-Lynn Huynh of Henninger High School with Barb Bova, WTB president

WTB is delighted to honor these inspiring young women and the work are doing to build relationships among people of different cultures. We wish them every success as they pursue their educational and personal goals. Emelia is going to Onondaga Community College next year; Lynn is going to Yale.

EMELIA WEAH, Nottingham class of 2021, came to this country in 2010 from Ivory Coast, West Africa. She has overcome many challenges through hard work and focusing on helping others. Emelia founded an anti-bullying group at Nottingham to help shy, quiet students make friends and connect to staff resources and has been active in Girls UP club, which focuses on empowering women. She is part of “Through My Eyes,” a group where students from around the world share their experiences living in this country. Emelia serves her church by volunteering in the food pantry and teaching Sunday school. She begins OCC in the fall.

NGOC-LYNN HUYNH, Henninger Class of 2021, is a first-generation Vietnamese American; she “learned to become a liaison between these two cultures using my fluency in Vietnamese and English to teach each side about the other.” Lynn began as a participant and became a trained facilitator in Community-Wide Dialogue; she worked on an exchange program involving 30 students from Manlius Pebble Hill and Henninger to discuss racism in schools and how to end it. Lynn is very involved with Seeds of Peace participating in the intense Seeds of Peace Camp experience. While she was President of her school’s chapter, the group collaborated with the Multicultural Club sponsoring school dialogue sessions. She is going to Yale next year.