Student: Minors can make a major impact

Junior Emanuel Tsourounis II, co-author of Youth! The 26% Solution, in Willard Straight Hall. Charles Harrington/University Photography

Emanuel Tsourounis II, a Cornell junior government major from Huntingtown, Md., has had his first book published. And its focus is a sometimes overlooked power base -- young people, 26 percent of the population.

Co-authored with Wendy Schaetzel Lesko, founder and executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Activism 2000 Project, the book is titled Youth! The 26% Solution.

Tsourounis will be signing copies of the book from noon to 1 p.m. today at the Cornell Campus Store -- two days, appropriately, before Saturday's Into the Streets day of community service, featuring participation by hundreds of Cornell students.

The book's premise is contained in its introduction: "According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 68 million people in the United States are under the age of 18. That's 26 percent of the population who participate in school and community activities, 26 percent who care about the world in which they live. However, that's also 26 percent of the population who cannot vote and 26 percent who are supposed to be seen and not heard, making for a resounding 100 percent of the future who have not been encouraged to exercise leadership today."

"My purpose with the book is to try to motivate as many students and young people as possible to get involved with their communities," Tsourounis said.

Although it is designed primarily for middle- and high-school age students, the book also is recommended for parents, educators, mentors, youth coordinators and other adults who collaborate with children and youth, the authors say.

Tsourounis sees the book as countering the "failed tradition of adults making decisions for youth, without youth," he said, and it provides various blueprints for youth action.

The chapters in the brightly presented, 130-page paperback have titles such as "Preparing to Act Up," "From Dreaming to Doing" and "Strategies for Influencing Decision-makers," and it is full of reference material and concrete information on how to get involved, including glossaries and sample lists of contacts, letters to the editor, news releases, grant proposals and petitions, as well as true stories of youth activism.

Tsourounis has long shown a commitment to leadership and community service. He was involved in student activism and government throughout middle school and high school in Maryland, eventually serving as president of the Maryland Association of Student Councils. He also is a past recipient of the President's National Youth Service Award, the Maryland Faces of the Future Student Leadership Award and other honors. At Cornell, he is a National Scholar, a Student Assembly representative from Arts and Sciences and the co-founder of the Residence Hall Association, an umbrella association for the campus' residence hall councils and committees.

The Youth! The 26% Solution book project began in 1997 when Lesko contacted Tsourounis -- after he was recommended to her by the Maryland Superintendent of Schools office -- to help her put together a pamphlet on youth activism.

"As we were working together, we found there was so much more we could tell students than could fit in a six-to-eight page pamphlet," Tsourounis said, so the idea for the book was formed.

Lesko has authored numerous publications on political activism, including No Kidding Around! America's Youth Activists Are Changing Our World & You Can Too. Through the Activism 2000 Project, she conducts workshops and seminars throughout the country on youth empowerment and adult-youth collaboration.

Tsourounis, whose government studies at Cornell focus primarily on American institutions and politics, plans to go to law school after graduating and then pursue a career in government and the law.

Besides at the Campus Store, Youth! The 26% Solution is available from the Activism 2000 Project by phone, at 1-800-KID-POWER, and though the organization's web site: www.youthactivism.com. Discounts, savings and bulk rates are available for youth-run groups, non-profit and community organizations, schools and government agencies, Tsourounis said.