The Keeper of the Dream Award by the National Civil Rights Museum (NCR) celebrates and recognizes the youth who, through their heroism, display an amazing responsibility to ensure equality as well as safeguard our freedom.
This year NCR is hosting a virtual Freedom Award Student Forum enabling classrooms nationwide to have an opportunity to attend. The 2021 Keeper of the Dream Award winners are high school seniors Rheagan Crenshaw and Zahra Chowdhury.
These selected students will be presented the Keeper of the Dream Award for demonstrating compassion, leadership, commitment, and service toward senior citizens and youth. These two young women have huge hearts for senior citizens and a commitment to help youth cope mentally. The global pandemic didn’t dampen their spirits and efforts to stand up and serve an urgent need in their community.
Rheagan Crenshaw, a senior at Hutchison School, created Rheas of Hope after her
Demarcus Bowser
Rheagan Crenshaw
grandmother’s passing in 2018. Rheas of Hope connects teen volunteers with senior citizens from the area with an aim to positively impact the lives of the senior citizens.
Demarcus Bowser
Zahra Chowdhury
Zahra Chowdhry, a senior at Pleasant View School and a CHANGE fellow at Bridges, created Counselors not Cops. Counselors not Cops was created through the Bridges CHANGE program to increase the presence of mental health professionals and resources at schools in lieu of law enforcement. “Counselors not Cops creates safe spaces for students to make sure that our schools are providing adequate mental health resources,” explains Chowdhry. “The goal of this work is to stop the number of students going into the juvenile justice system from being part of the school-to-prison pipeline which disproportionately affects the Black and brown students, especially.”
“I felt so happy, excited, and grateful,” says Chowdhry about the award. “It shows me that there are organizations out there that believe in you and want to see you succeed. It’s a symbol of youth power.” Chowdhry continues, “Don’t be afraid to start small because that’s how every large movement started.”
“This year’s Student Forum promises to be an unprecedented event,” Dr. Noelle Trent, the museum’s Director of Interpretation, Collections and Education, said in a press release. “We are looking forward to celebrating the achievements of our area youth while also reflecting on the current fight for social justice, inclusion, and equity. The virtual platform promises to open up new ways for us to engage with students and educators.”
Sponsored by International Paper, the annual Student Forum opens the museum’s Freedom Award celebration. This year’s virtual forum is hosted by WMC-TV reporter, Kelli Cook, and Marissa Pittman, a past winner of Keeper of the Dream and currently a student at Dillard University. The Student Forum bridges the gap between changemakers and everyday people. This year the virtual forum will also feature entertainment by Caleb Thompson, an understudy for New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
The virtual Student Forum live stream is free to all registered classrooms, student or youth groups. The student forum live stream is on October 14, 2021 at 10 a.m. There will be a second broadcast on October 21, 2021 at 10 a.m. Registered groups can also engage via a moderated chat or Twitter feed using the hashtag #NCRMStudentForum.
For more information and to register, visit the Freedom Award website.