Sequoyah School Students Working for Change
These high school students are advocating for safer streets.
Gus Pompa, Cameron Neville, and Saverio Fennell-Molinaro are high school students advocating for safer streets in Pasadena.
We are students from Sequoyah School in Pasadena who are biking enthusiasts and would like to see improvements made to public biking infrastructure in the San Gabriel Valley. At Sequoyah, we have a program called the Social Innovation Program—or SIP for short—in which individuals or groups pick an issue local to Los Angeles that we would like to see improvements in. Our group decided to focus on improving bike infrastructure in the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles at large.
Our work with Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition began in April of 2024, when we contacted Jonah Kanner about getting involved with PasadenaCSC’s All Ages & Abilities Greenways project. We were moved by the project, and thought it aligned well with our school’s vision, so we wanted to do whatever we could to help with the project. At that time, we began work on creating Sequoyah’s official letter of support for the project, which was successfully posted on PasadenaCSC’s website in May. In the fall of 2024, we attended two public meetings regarding Pasadena Unified School District’s involvement with the project, where we gave public comment in support of the greenways.
After our involvement with the All Ages & Abilities Greenways project wrapped up, we pivoted to assisting with the 710 Northern Stub Transitional Project Development (also known as “Pasadena Avenue Project”). The Pasadena Avenue Project would introduce a number of quality-of-life improvements regarding pedestrian and biking infrastructure to the South Arroyo area of Pasadena, making the area safer for students, drivers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and anybody who spends time in the area. Our SIP team wrote another official letter of support representing Sequoyah, as well as writing a letter for The Waverley School, both of which are at the heart of the proposed project area, and would greatly benefit from the changes made. We encourage readers to support the Pasadena Avenue Project by contacting your local district representatives, or by attending one of PasadenaCSC’s many public events.
— Gus, Cam, & Sav
Gus, Cameron, and Saverio built support at their school for a safer Pasadena Avenue, in hopes this will allow students a better route to bike to school.
