In honor of Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the last new month of the 2014-2015 school year, CESJDS welcomed Valerie Weisler, the founder of the Validation Project.

Weisler, a high school junior who lives in Rockland County, NY, spoke to JDS students about her life, her organization and how students can change the world.

Weisler’s life was “normal” until ninth grade, when her parents divorced and her father was diagnosed with cancer. Weisler started dressing differently and got much more shy, which she said led to constant harassment. Weisler was bullied verbally and in letters, which were about “why I shouldn’t be alive.”

After consoling a classmate who was being bullied for his weight, Weisler realized that she could help people just by talking to them and making them feel like they matter. Wiesler created a “community of outsiders” at her school, but her wishes went beyond Rockland County.

Her desire to help people turned into the Validation Project. The Validation Project helps more than 5,000 students and 2,000 adults at over 900 schools all across the globe find their voices and their passions.

Getting involved with the organization starts when a teenager or an adult sends an application that includes what that person’s passion and skills are. Then, the organization matches them up with a mentor for an internship. After the internship, they work with the organization to create a campaign to fix a problem they saw while interning. One of Weisler’s favorite campaigns was Crave the Brave, where teens posted pictures of themselves with signs that said what makes them courageous.

“It wasn’t just about LGBT, it was just about encouraging people to come out about whatever they were afraid to say,” Weisler said.

This theme is especially personal for Weisler, who came out as gay in 2014. Before that, she struggled with her sexuality, even though many of her relatives are members of the LGBT community. But Weisler was often angry at herself for being gay, and hated herself for being different.

Before she became a public spokesperson for gay rights, Weisler struggled to deal with her own personal insecurities while maintaining a public image as a teen advocate. After coming out, Weisler avoided the locker room at school because girls looked at her as a predator.

This experience motivated her to speak out about equality for LGBT youth, because she did not want other teenagers to experience what she had gone through. A majority of this work is through her organization, where she has learned how to engage with a diversity of audiences.

“If I get an anti gay person or something I try to educate them,” Weisler said. “And if that doesn’t work, then we just give them a campaign to just kind of give them the middle finger.”

In the end though, Weisler’s presentation boiled down to one word, “you.”

“Every single one of you is incredible. There’s only one you. And if you realize that, and that there’s no one else on Earth who does you, you’re set,” she said on stage. “Don’t keep your dream as just a dream, or what you fall asleep at night thinking about. Make it into your reality because that’s the way that it is going to bring change.”

After her presentation, around 20 students crowded around her to thank her for her presentation and ask how they could get involved. Freshman Jaimin Kammerman-Fletcher timidly asked for a hug, as he related to Weisler personally.

“Her parents are divorced, my parents are divorced. Her dad has cancer, I have cancer. She feels shy, I feel shy,” Kammerman-Fletcher said. “She’s inspiring because she broke out of her shell and I still need to do that. I’ve already started breaking out of my shell and now I’m going to work harder to do that.”