Empower Montana’s 16th Diversity Day spotlights youth leadership, keynote and five Youth Lead Now awards

Empower Montana held its sixteenth annual Diversity Day in Missoula, where youth leaders delivered a keynote, read a mayoral proclamation, and presented five Youth Lead Now awards alongside community-club action projects.

The event, emceed by Drew Eblin and Patience Matt and introduced by Jess Moniz Hernandez, director of youth engagement at Empower Montana, focused on this year’s theme, “creative resistance.” "In a world that often attempts to silence diverse voices, creative resistance emerges as our most powerful tool for change," Moniz Hernandez said.

Why it matters: Empower Montana said the original youth effort that launched Diversity Day pressed the city to add LGBTQ people to Missoula’s nondiscrimination ordinance; the event serves as an annual showcase of youth organizing, leadership training, and ongoing programs such as the statewide GSA network and a free summer camp for high schoolers.

A proclamation marking the day was read onstage by youth advisory council members Lizzie Mills Lowe, Liam, and Lily. The reading included the text naming John Engen, mayor of Missoula, and reciting the original proclamation language: "Now therefore I John Engen mayor of the city of Missoula in in the state of Montana, do hereby proclaim 04/12/2010 as Missoula Diversity Day," the readers said.

The youth keynote, Cecilia Spencer, a Hellgate High School student who identified as a descendant of Salish nations, urged attendees toward "radical kindness" and persistence. Quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Spencer said, "darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. And hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that," and called for community building and constructive action.

Awards and honorees: The Youth Lead Now Awards recognized five young people for leadership and service: - Tantine Russa Giza, a Hellgate High School student originally from Burundi, honored for leadership in the Refugee Girls Leadership Council and academic achievement. - Naomi Fisher, an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and a student at Arlee High School, recognized for tribal-community leadership, volunteering and trail work. - Charles (Charlie) Snellman, a senior at Capital High School in Helena, cited for founding the Helena Health Science Advisory Board, school-board advocacy, and extracurricular achievements in music and science. - Stephen Klemkiewicz, a seventh grader at St. Joseph’s School in Missoula, recognized for volunteer work and community engagement. - Nina Rhode, an eighth grader at Sussex School, honored for creating an intersectional book library at Empower Montana after fundraising at her school.

Each awardee spoke briefly about how they understand creative resistance, from building advisory boards to encouraging cross-ideological media literacy. Charles Snellman described creative resistance as "doing more than just pointing out what's broken; it means imagining and building what could be better," and urged peers to convert frustration into constructive work.

Community-club projects: Several Empower Montana community clubs presented action projects. The Association for BIPOC Youth (Abby) screened a short film documenting experiences of youth of color and asked school leaders to take concrete steps — for example, daily indigenous-language announcements — to reduce marginalization. Youth Forward presented a memorial-style quilt inspired by the AIDS Quilt to collect and display queer stories. BU Crew showed abstract paintings and student portraits aimed at affirming gender-diverse identities. Nina Rhode’s book project produced a small diverse-library collection now housed at Empower Montana.

Programs, sponsors and next steps: Moniz Hernandez promoted the Empowering Youth Leadership Institute, a free summer camp for high schoolers at Camp Paxton in Seeley Lake, and noted that Empower Montana coordinates the statewide GSA network and offers professional-development training for educators. Sponsors listed during the program included the Native American Center for Excellence, the Good Food Store, the Book Exchange, Ace Hardware, Blackfoot Communication, and the UCC Church. Attendees were invited to visit resource tables and use a QR code to donate toward honoraria and youth programming.

The event closed with an invitation to sustain momentum: participants were encouraged to volunteer with community clubs, nominate youth for next year’s awards, and use Empower Montana’s resources to support local GSAs, school-based initiatives and youth-led projects.