Priya Vulchi and Winona Guo
Princeton High School sophomores Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi launched a project called CHOOSE as an outlet for people from every walk of life to share both positive and negative experiences regarding race on a local level.
The project began with Guo and Vulchi asking passersby on the street about their views on racial issues in Princeton. Inspired by personal stories and recent events such as the Eric Garner case, the two have collected these stories on a new website princetonchoose.org.
The site has received more than 20,000 views since its recent launch.
Guo was born in Princeton to immigrant parents. Living in Singapore, China and the United States, she was exposed to the issues of racism, stereotyping and bigotry globally as well as locally.
In the past few years, Guo also founded Literacy for Life, a global organization to help reduce poverty through literacy, and Project Global, an international tutoring initiative to give foreign students an opportunity to learn English from native speakers.
She works with Fair Trade, a global social movement and reads to Hispanic youth at the Pannell Learning Center on a weekly basis.
Vulchi’s travels and experiences living in India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and the United States have exposed her to racism in various parts of the globe.
She participates in EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) at Princeton University and writes for the Princeton High School newspaper and the Princeton Packet. She also enjoys graphic design and does research on ovarian cancer.
She has also been involved in many community services such as Meals on Wheels and teaching art to bilingual pre-schoolers at the YWCA.
Guo and Vulchi have been invited to speak to the entire Princeton High staff and to visit the Princeton Friends School. They plan to meet with Superintendent Steve Cochrane in the near future to discuss their contributions in light of the district’s Wellness Campaign which includes the topic of “diversity and differences” as one of its four major themes.
