It’s been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina crashed into the Gulf Coast, yet the region still struggles to rebuild. This summer, UW students will have the opportunity to help high school leaders initiate change through the Katrina Leadership Project.

The Katrina Leadership Project is an effort to strengthen the Gulf Coast infrastructure through empowering local high school students. Forty teenagers, from 15 to 18 years old, will spend five weeks in Washington, D.C. at Howard University taking classes, meeting influential leaders and developing projects to implement in their own communities.

Twenty college students from around the nation are facilitating the project; four attend the UW. Each student heard about it in different ways, but all have the same passion for making a difference in the Gulf region.

Sophomore Yusuf Surur applied after he heard a friend describe the region as the equivalent of war-torn Africa.

“I knew I could do an internship at Microsoft or Intel like other pre-engineering students, but I felt like I should be a part of the project to make an immediate change,” he said.

One major motivator for the volunteers is the lack of response to the area’s continuing problems.

UW junior Meley Gebremedhin visited New Orleans in 2006 and saw the devastation firsthand.

“Nothing is changing,” she said. “We live in America, the land of milk and honey — so what’s going on?”

Most of the change will stem from the high school students themselves; many are invested in their neighborhoods in the Gulf Coast but few have the tools to make a difference.

During their summer in D.C., the high school students will have the support to implement projects in their communities the following school year.

However, the Katrina Leadership Project doesn’t come without a cost. Although high school students attend for free, the college volunteers need to raise money.

“The fact is, before any of this happens, we need to raise $300,000,” Gebremedhin said. “We need the UW community to be supportive. It’s not about money; we need awareness.”

During spring break, the students will travel to various U.S. cities to fundraise for the project. In the meantime, they are working on getting donation drop boxes for campus.

Right now, though, they’re not worried about the money.

Instead, each student is focused on the possibilities of influencing change.

“If not us, then who — if not now, then when?” Surur said.

Through the efforts of high school students, the region has the opportunity to become self-sufficient.

“How do you retain the people in the city?” junior Ilays Aden said. “The unemployment is really high, [and] crime is really high. All of these problems come into play. Now we’re trying to look at the infrastructure and see how we can build it through leadership.”

Junior Elias Berhanu, secretary for the African Student Association at the UW, is passionate about the possibilities for the students.

“This is a great opportunity for them,” he said. “They’ll be exposed to our nation’s government. There’s a girl who wants to go into pre-med, [so] we’re going to take her to Johns Hopkins. Each kid will have the opportunity to meet someone in their respective field.”

[Reach reporter Erika Cederlind at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]