The Best and The Brightest of 2023
Jennifer
Vo
Age 17 | Senior
BASIS Chandler
Gilbert
BASIS Chandler
Gilbert
Jennifer Vo founded the Arizona Chapter of Generation Ratify, a movement by youth advocates to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. She’s grown the chapter to 70 members in just two years and lobbied Arizona Congress to support ERA and Equality Act, organized school walkouts with Support Equality AZ, collaborated with youth groups such as AZ Youth Climate Coalition, and more. In addition, she started the BASIS Chandler UNICEF Chandler chapter and helped Utah and Nevada start Generation Ratify chapters in their states.
“My passion for advocacy work started at a young age,” said Vo. “I was shy and quiet in middle school, but joined the environmental committee and pushed for our school to adopt recycling measures. I learned you can make an impact by fighting for what you believe in and collaborating with school administrators and teachers.”
Vo recently worked on Nevada’s Equal Rights Amendment campaign, and they are now the most inclusive state regarding rights for everyone regardless of age, disability, race, gender.
In 2022, she was selected as Gabriel Giffords youth fellowship for Giffords Courage, a gun violence prevention movement. She flew to Washington D.C. for two weeks in the summer to learn more about gun violence solutions and to grow gun violence prevention advocates.
Jennifer has been involved in her school’s debate team. She is ranked as 7th Best Public Forum Debate Team by the National Debate Coach Association and #1 Public Forum Debater in Arizona by the National Speech and Debate Association.
This spring, she will be traveling to D.C. to lobby for Equal Rights at Congress and in the summer, she will be taking part in the 100th-year anniversary project with Columbia Law School.
Jennifer wants to study Political Science or International Studies in college. She is also interested in being a pre-medicine student to learn a more holistic view of the world. Her dream would be to work with Doctors Without Borders for a few years and then become a doctor in the United States or internationally and help people without access to healthcare.
“My passion for advocacy work started at a young age,” said Vo. “I was shy and quiet in middle school, but joined the environmental committee and pushed for our school to adopt recycling measures. I learned you can make an impact by fighting for what you believe in and collaborating with school administrators and teachers.”
Vo recently worked on Nevada’s Equal Rights Amendment campaign, and they are now the most inclusive state regarding rights for everyone regardless of age, disability, race, gender.
In 2022, she was selected as Gabriel Giffords youth fellowship for Giffords Courage, a gun violence prevention movement. She flew to Washington D.C. for two weeks in the summer to learn more about gun violence solutions and to grow gun violence prevention advocates.
Jennifer has been involved in her school’s debate team. She is ranked as 7th Best Public Forum Debate Team by the National Debate Coach Association and #1 Public Forum Debater in Arizona by the National Speech and Debate Association.
This spring, she will be traveling to D.C. to lobby for Equal Rights at Congress and in the summer, she will be taking part in the 100th-year anniversary project with Columbia Law School.
Jennifer wants to study Political Science or International Studies in college. She is also interested in being a pre-medicine student to learn a more holistic view of the world. Her dream would be to work with Doctors Without Borders for a few years and then become a doctor in the United States or internationally and help people without access to healthcare.
