Teens to be honored for civic engagement with Dolores Huerta scholarships

Two Tempe high school students will receive $1,000 Dolores Huerta scholarships for their civic engagement, community organizing and leadership. Katie Ritchie and Rohn Ragland will be honored during the Neighborhood Celebration on April 1 at Kiwanis Park. The Neighborhood Celebration is an outdoor breakfast party with live music and fun. Awards are presented to the fantastic people who make Tempe's neighborhoods the special places they are. 

Dolores Huerta is a civil rights activist and community organizer who has fought for labor rights and social justice for more than 50 years. In 1962, she and Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers union. She is credited with the rallying cry, "Si Se Puede!" She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award from President Bill Clinton in 1998. In 2012, President Barack Obama bestowed Dolores with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in our country. The civil rights leader will be 93 this year.  

In 2019, the Tempe City Council passed a resolution formally declaring April 10 as Dolores Huerta Day. 

About Dolores Huerta

About the winners

Rohn Ragland
As a community organizer, Rohn Ragland works to overcome voter apathy among young voters. As President of Desert Vista High School's Black Student Union, he created a speaker series with prominent African Americans discussing the importance of voting and participating in the political process to evoke change. He has served as a volunteer poll monitor, organized rallies and gone door to door to get out the vote. He is passionate about issues affecting people of color and plans to continue his work into college and beyond through the expansion of a non-profit organization he has already started. Rohn is also a winner of a 2023 MLK Diversity Award.  

Katie Ritchie 
Katie Ritchie and her hot pink megaphone can be found amplifying voices at public rallies for women’s rights and other causes. She serves on the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission, a group composed of 50 student leaders throughout Arizona who work to identify and address the greatest challenges facing our state’s youth. While leading the Education Workgroup, she focused on increasing equity among students and schools, providing materials in English and Spanish, digitally and in print. With her influence, the group also expanded the array of post-secondary opportunities communicated to students to include not only universities but also trade schools and apprenticeships. This opened new avenues for growing wealth and careers for students.