Upper school and middle school students traveled to the Forum in Inglewood to participate in WE day on Thursday, April 25.

WE Day is an event that celebrates people who are making a difference in today’s world. According to we.org, the day is important because “standing in a stadium full of change-makers will reaffirm your belief that a better world is possible.”

This year’s celebration included a variety of speakers ranging from advocates for change to models to singers, including singer Selena Gomez, model Winnie Harlow and youth activist Ryan Hickman.

“I really enjoyed going to We Day because it was amazing to see all the change that people are making in the world, especially because it’s people from all different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and religions,” Lauren Robson, one of four freshmen who attended the event, said. “Everyone just came together as a community.”

WE coordinator Livia Blum ’19 said that two weeks before WE day, upper schoolers completed a survey that asked what service work they are involved in and how they plan to apply what they learn at WE Day to their work. For middle schoolers, the survey asked about their passions and what they hoped to get out of WE day.

“Archer became a WE school a couple of years ago after an original group went to the event,” Blum said. “It’s basically kind of a celebration of the service and the work that Archer students have done, both as groups or individually. ”

Blum said she feels that today, this generation of youth are caring more and taking advantage of their resources and people around them to create change.

“I think WE day is a really amazing opportunity for students to meet other students from different schools or parts of Los Angeles specifically and who are interested in social justice like them,” Blum said. “It’s a really amazing way to kind of celebrate and acknowledge all the work that the youth today are doing for the world.”

History Meg Shirk, who engineered the community service curriculum, did not attend WE day this year but has been involved with it for the past few years.

“We Day is an incredibly inspiring event,” she said. “It honors all of the amazing teenagers from the greater Los Angeles area that have given service, and it’s an event to celebrate their work and to inspire them to keep giving back in the future.”