Mikva Soapbox Challenge: Letting Kids Speak Up!

Story by Paris Dozier. Photo courtesy of Catalogue for Philanthropy. At last year’s Soapbox Challenge, Woodridge scholar and competition winner Nehemiah Jackson enthralled the room when he spoke about ending police brutality.

JAN. 17, 2020: When you were a child, did you ever feel like nobody listened to you? Did you feel that your voice was muted? Well, a nationwide competition called Mikva Soapbox Challenge is finally stressing the importance of letting kids speak up. And luckily for the competition, it had a surplus of participants in the DMV area!

Kids spoke up about everything from drug abuse and domestic violence to women’s healthcare prices; and these topics are serious business. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of accompanying Woodridge’s team to the competition and here is what I noticed.

The competition insists on having all participants feel comfortable and excited about presenting their case. We played games at the start of the day to get everyone excited and fired up and had sweet treats during lunchtime! This ensured that kids felt confident about presenting the problems that need to be solved in the world that will one day be their responsibility. 

Spending the day hearing truly important cases, and spending time with wonderful people really helped me understand what the Mikva Soapbox Challenge strives to do. They are attempting to heal today for a better tomorrow, and I would strongly recommend every student participate and speak up! 

Paris Dozier is a 5th grade scholar at Friendship Woodridge International School.