Alex Koroknay-Palicz
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| Alex Koroknay-Palicz | |
| Born | July 2, 1981 Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Executive Director, NYRA |
| Website www.oneandfour.org |
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Alex Koroknay-Palicz (born July 2, 1981) is an American activist.
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[edit] Biography
Koroknay-Palicz was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan and grew up in Holland, Michigan. As a young child, Koroknay-Palicz felt uneasy by the power relationships between adults and youth. By high school, he began to articulate that inequality in terms of ageism (unfounded bias based on age), and wrote articles for his school newspaper on the subject. Senior year at Holland High School, Koroknay-Palicz discovered several local businesses with policies limiting the number of students allowed inside at any one time. Recognizing these policies as ageism, he decided to do something about it.
After much research he learned these policies were illegal under Michigan's Elliot-Larson Civil Rights Act. Koroknay-Palicz demanded the city to enforce this law at a speech before a Holland city council meeting on April 21, 1999. The matter was referred to Al Serrano in the city's Human Rights Department, who succeeded in overturning the policies at all the stores in question.[1]
That summer he moved to the Washington, D.C., area to attend American University, after three years he left to begin his youth rights career. He quickly became involved in the Youth Rights Movement, and is currently the Executive Director of the National Youth Rights Association.
Koroknay-Palicz believes there are many parallels between the treatment of youth in the United States and the treatment of women around the world, "A lot of societies will tell you they care very much about women -- respect them, hold them in high esteem. But they don't listen to them," he says. "They don't ask women what they want." [2]
Koroknay-Palicz has become a major figure in all aspects of the Youth Rights movement and has made fighting ageism his chief purpose. Koroknay-Palicz serves on the board of advisors for the Freechild Project, and is currently working on a Youth Rights book with Adam Fletcher of CommonAction. His writings appear in several books[3], publications and websites. In 2007 Koroknay-Palicz joined the Board of Directors of CAFETY.
As spokesman for the National Youth Rights Association, Koroknay-Palicz appeared on PBS and NPR, and twice on CNN and Fox News[4] and has been quoted in the Christian Science Monitor[5] Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Jackson Free Press[6] and USA Today.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
- National Youth Rights Association
- Youth rights
- The Freechild Project
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- One and Four Alex Koroknay-Palicz's blog
- National Youth Rights Association website
