Camille Tedeschi is doing her part to change the world and she’s inspired many Huntington High School students to join the cause.
A longtime high school social studies teacher who serves as Huntington’s Interact club advisor and also leads student trips around the world through EF Tours, Ms. Tedeschi is a dynamic educator with indefatigable energy.
Ms. Tedeschi was recently honored for her work before a crowd of more than 6,000 at Radio City Music Hall during the first ever WE Day New York celebration. The teacher led a contingent of current Huntington students and high school alums on a service learning trip to Tanzania last summer.
“WE Day is the manifestation of the WE Movement, an ocean of people coming together to create impact,” according to the organization. More than 200,000 young people and educators are coming together this month in 14 stadium gatherings across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to participate in this unprecedented educational initiative.
Inspiring speeches from Martin Luther King III, Mia Farrow, Rowan Blanchard, Angy Rivera and Buzz Aldrin, as well as youth speakers Nyeeam Hudson, Rosemary Rodriguez, Lizbeth Lucero and Khoudia Diop moved the Radio City crowd and energized youth for another year of service. With performances from Grammy Award winning artist Daya along with Jordan Fisher, Darren Criss and many more, the audience couldn’t keep its eyes of the stage.
“WE is a movement that exists for one reason: to make the world a better place,” according to the organization. “We are shameless idealists who believe that there is a version of our highest selves that comes from living a life of daily legacies. Our lives take on a deeper, transformative meaning when we impact the lives of others. I am WE.”
Last summer’s trip to Tanzania was a collaboration between EF Tours, Free the Children and ME to WE. Trip participants helped renovate classrooms and took part in various educational and athletic activities from language lessons to a soccer game.
“Living ME to WE means working together to create sustainable change, and making a difference with everything you do; from choosing travel that leaves a positive footprint on the planet, to making purchases that give back,” according to the organization.
“I was inspired by the program and brought it back to Huntington High School,” Ms. Tedeschi said. “We are now an official WE school because I registered us and I do a lot of projects with the Interact kids. I’m looking to take kids back to Tanzania or India to continue our work with education.”
WE heard about Ms. Tedeschi’s work and it conducted lengthy interviews with her. Selected as the teacher honoree at the WE Day New York event, organizers used the interview to develop a pair of questions that were put to the veteran on the Radio City stage before the huge crowd.
Huntington seniors Kayla Ryan and Emma Pipolo along with security guard Sylvia Belanger accompanied Ms. Tedeschi to Manhattan for the celebration. They were backstage at Radio City for the festivities. All three were among the participants in last summer’s trip to Tanzania.
Besides the trip to Africa, the Interact club members raised money for education, water projects and food through countless bake sales.
When the folks at WE heard about all the service work Ms. Tedeschi has been doing with students and learned more about her belief that it’s important for teenagers to travel to expand their learning, they knew she belonged on the stage before the massive Radio City crowd.
