North Allegheny graduates launch changemaking guide

Two recent North Allegheny graduates teamed up with other young adults to craft a changemaking guide book that aims to provide resources and tips to other young people looking to make changes in their communities.

The final product is an 85-page book titled “From the Ground Up: A Guide to Changemaking.”

Victoria Ren, 17, who is preparing to attend Stanford University this fall, has been working to make the guide happen for nearly two years.

“I wanted to create something that was accessible for everyone, to be that first support system,” she said, explaining that the book offers an array of information to help people get started in the world of changemaking.

Ren co-authored the book with Samantha Podnar, another recent North Allegheny graduate, and Louisa Edwards, a student at the University of Virginia. Abby Liang, who is studying at the University of Michigan, served as the project’s graphic designer.

Podnar brainstormed with Ren before the project launched.

“I thought a comprehensive guidebook could be extremely useful for those who hadn’t really had access to the resources to get involved in changemaking,” Podnar said. “I believed in the idea and the team we had started to put together, and I thought I could put my interest in writing to use.”

Ren said the idea was sparked by her own changemaking work. She had been working on a project that aimed to “redefine what the traditional classroom looked like.” Her work included spearheading outreach events and camps.

Ren said she realized that there was a learning curve to getting started in such work. She also acknowledged that finding the appropriate mentors or resources to learn more can be a challenge.

“I realized just how much I wished I knew when I started — how much I wished I had that mentorship that’s often needed when you start changemaking or activism work,” Ren said.

That’s the gap her guidebook hopes to fill.

“The guidebook is super-practical,” Ren said. “It goes from the beginning to the end of a lot of changemaking work.”

It begins with a section that guides people through the process of determining what they care most about and how they could begin to create positive change in that area. It suggests potential steps, ranging from creating a website for a local nonprofit to launching a completely new organization.

“It takes everyone through the different steps you might encounter, like building a team, using social media, failure,” she said.

Each section touches on a specific topic and includes case studies about other young people who have worked on subjects like mental health and food insecurity.

“For me, it’s been cool to be able to distill everything I’ve learned and hope to do better at into one thing I can share with other people,” Ren said.

Podnar had been part of a racial justice coalition in the North Allegheny School District for more than two years — and she used her experiences to help determine what other young people should know about changemaking.

“Helping write and edit the guidebook has taught me so much because there’s just so much good content out there, in the minds of my teammates and in the minds of other young changemakers,” she said. “We’ve really just consolidated it and made it accessible.”

The group released the guidebook in June, which is available at bit.ly/fromthegroundupguide.

“This guidebook is packed with a lot of information,” Ren said. “It’s supposed to be used like a dictionary or thesaurus. Whenever you feel like you’re at a roadblock, you can look at it then.”

Ultimately, Ren said, she wants the guidebook to be a resource that can make activism and changemaking more accessible for young adults. She said she hopes it inspires people to start or continue work that often feels daunting.

“I hope the ultimate takeaway that people get is that there is a community behind you, even if you don’t feel like there is,” she said. “It can very lonely or heavy, like there’s so much you don’t know yet. But with the guidebook, people can see there’s so many people out there who support you.”