Secular Student Alliance Hires High School Campus Organizer

I’m so excited about this announcement…

JT Eberhard, Captain of the Missouri State University Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and one of the leaders responsible for putting together the incredibly popular Skepticon conference last month, now has a new job:

… I was offered the position of Campus Organizer and High School Specialist with the Secular Student Alliance. I immediately accepted, as this was the job at the top of my list…

…

If you are a high school student reading this and you would like to form a secularism group at your school, you may contact me in my official capacity starting Jan. 3, 2011. It will be my job to help you. 🙂

Why am I excited?

1) It’s JT Eberhard. Good guy, great activist, and a perfect fit for this job.

2) The SSA can finally focus on high school atheist groups — something both our donors and staff have wanted us to do for a long time, but something we’ve never had resources for in the past.

This is all possible thanks to a $50,000 grant from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.

I can’t wait to see high school atheist groups begin to flourish next year 🙂 Can you imagine how amazing it would’ve been having one of those groups around when you were in high school? I know I would’ve appreciated it…

If you’d like to help the SSA keep growing, please consider making a donation today. We need to keep this momentum going!

Steven Olsen

Well said. Missouri will have to work that much harder in his absence. Lucky for us he’s leaving behind and army of capable atheists.
Larry Meredith

Sounds like Hemant has an Eberhard-on for JT Eberhard… I just had to go there.
Katie Hartman

Excuse me while I go follow JT around like a sad puppy until he decides to stay here forever. This apartment won’t be the same without JT wandering around in his underwear, the death threats, the Skepticon-season craziness… it made this place a HOME, dammit!
microbiologychick

I think high school atheist groups are a good thing, but I am so scared for the kids who will be heading up these groups.

We saw what happened to Constance McMilan. The same is going to happen to lots of kids who start atheist groups in Mississippi, Tennessee, and other places.

Some kids are going to have to sacrifice a lot before the schools get used the idea.
Larry Meredith

whoever is the first to find me an article about this story, stating that atheist extremists are beginning to infiltrate into our public high schools, gets a shiny penny.
Larry Meredith

I’m not sure this will make a big deal… I was an awkward nervous loner in high school, so one of these groups may have been a place to make friends, but I wasn’t even interested in atheist issues until I was 18.
Carlie

The atheists! They’re…they’re… coming after the children!!!!
Jon

I still won’t buy a Mac.
chicago dyke

lol, Jon.

micro: you’re not wrong, but still: this is how leaders are made. high school kids who experience that sort of discrimination become the leaders and role models of the future. Constance is doing fine and has been widely feted by the gay community. that’s the sort of example more kids need a chance to experience, imho.