Dariusz ( Derek ) Ciszek, 22, like many of the 30 Under 30 honorees, has extensive experience helping the community. He has helped the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund plan and facilitate a Marriage Equality Bus Tour in Urbana/Champaign, Ill.; in the legal field, he has also helped LGBT individuals and HIV/AIDS-impacted people process discrimination claims with Lambda Legal attorneys.
At the University of Chicago, Derek has been involved in training sessions on LGBT life for his fellow students and university staff. He has also facilitated panel discussions about issues ranging from workplace equality to civil marriages through the school's Summer Links Internship Program. Additionally, as a new member of the University of Chicago's Maroon Key Society and Dean's Committee on LGBTQ Campus Life, Derek advises the Assistant Dean of the College on appropriate university reform policies to strengthen LGBTQ student/faculty relations on campus. Recently, he was awarded a University of Chicago Human Rights Internship to go and work with gay-rights activists with Amnesty International in Sydney, Australia for summer 2005. Derek will also be working with Amnesty's Refugee Team to help process asylum claims for people fleeing persecution due to sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the South Pacific.
DID YOU KNOW? In high school, Derek was part of his school's world traveling chorus and actually sang Latin at the famous Duomo in Florence, Italy, on Easter Sunday.
Aren Drehobl
Aren Drehobl, 27, is an openly transgender activist who is program manager at GLSEN Chicago. As a youth advocate, Aren has done many things. For example, Aren planned two day-long youth leadership summits ( including workshops, performances, and speakers ) that each drew more than 100 youth and adult allies. In addition, Aren regularly includes workshops on transgender issues and racism in summit offerings. Also, Aren encourages young people to learn to present and share skills with each other: more than half of the workshops at the last summit were youth-led. Moreover, the tireless activist has trained or presented to more than 2,000 youth and adults about safe schools for LGBTQ youth since last July.
Aren is also a member of the CESO ( Coalition for Education on Sexual Orientation ) steering committee and recently joined the Mentor Community Advisory Board of Howard Brown's Broadway Youth Center. Aren was also a huge part of this year's Night of Noise rally ( to raise awareness of anti-LGBT discrimination and violence in schools ) that drew several hundred people and elicited the first formal response ever from Chicago Public Schools administration regarding students' repeated requests for staff training on LGBT youth issues in schools.
Aren plans to return to school ( the University of Chicago ) this fall to pursue a Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago in order to broaden the skills she uses with queer youth. However, Aren is proudest of the other 30 under 30 winners Aren has supported, worked with, and seen excel. DID YOU KNOW? Aren loves avocados, has a children's librarian for a partner, and absolutely loves the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
David ( Dai ) Fischer
David Fischer, 20, a transgender man, is the youth leader coordinator for the Questioning Youth Center ( QYC ) , a safe and respectful environment for GLBTQA individuals in the Chicagoland area that formed in 1996. David has been with the center for four years and has helped the project grow from its home base in Naperville to include youth from Glen Ellyn, DeKalb, and Woodstock.
David works in weekly drop-in centers, supporting youth leaders to run their own programming, helping them in planning new programs and choosing new leaders. David trains new youth leaders, acting as a liaison among the center's multiple sites, which span four counties. Over the past 18 months, he has been a resource for his own former high school and for other schools seeking to improve the climates for their LGBTIQA students. David coordinated a meeting between QYC and his former high school social worker that led to a meeting with the entire student services department.
Perhaps one of David's most impressive accomplishments involved speaking at a school that had been working for years to establish a gay-straight alliance. The school superintendent attended the presentation and cleared the way for the school to form an alliance.
Amy Herrick
Amy Herrick, 29, has been involved in the LGBT community for a decade. While an undergraduate, she studied sociology, anthropology, and religion with a specific interest in feminism and queer theory; during this time, she served as treasurer of her school's GLBTQ organization. Amy then earned a Masters degree in sociology at the University of Chicago in 2001.
After graduation, Amy accepted a position with Howard Brown Health Center as a case finder for HIV-positive youth and was quickly promoted
