BCLA senior promotes peace

Ebony magazine names Vivian Mbawuike one of 10 top teens in the nation

Photos and story by Robert Frank
June 12, 2008

Vivian Mbawuike (pronounced em·­BOW·ee·kay), 17, speaks with passion about reclaiming self-described “thugs”— her teenage classmates, friends, and neighbors who have found their identities in tough, anti-social behavior. These are the kids with knives or guns, like the teenagers who killed her cousin. She is a senior at Boston Community Leadership Academy, a Pilot school in Brighton. With violence breeding violence outside her school and across the city, she has become a leader of a group called Spark the Truth that is dedicated to finding the positive in Boston’s youth and building on that.

Mbawuike, whose origins are Nigerian, brings some African spirit to her Boston commitment. She attended a conference with Rev. Desmond Tutu. She cites South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission as the model for the Spark the Truth movement: don’t seek revenge. Rather, acknowledge what has happened and one’s part in that, and then move on, together.

Spark’s tag line message is “What you’re for, not what you’re against—dreams!” This positive message was reflected in a friendly, city-wide, peaceful basketball tournament sponsored by Spark. Named “The Audacity to Dream Basketball Tournament,” its successful goal was to show that Boston youth could compete without hatred or violence.

This spring, in its June issue, Ebony magazine named Mbawuike one of the 10 top high school seniors in the country, based on her work to improve the community and her successful academic career. It included a full page photo, with an interview.

In the interview in Ebony, she says, “I have come to the realization that activism is always going to be my life’s work, because in order for me to see the humanity in myself, I must be able to see my brothers’ and sisters’ humanity. Barack Obama, I think, articulates it best when he says, ‘We are who we have been waiting for!’”

Mbawuike’s older sister, Samantha, says Vivian believes that “Martin Luther King had a determined vision, and not just a dream.” She says Vivian is passionate that “youth need to embody the vision that Martin Luther King had and continue to live out his wishes by attending school, looking up to parents; working just as hard as people who come from other countries and take powerful strides to better their selves.”