The camera flashes to another scene conveying the reality of this man’s life. He is an unemployed homosexual living with aids. The world has shut him out. The little girl does not understand this. He is her neighbor, her family friend. She sees the man for whom he really is, not the labels society defines him by.

The screen zooms in on the little girl’s face as she begins to realize how this man is struggling. She has a look in her eyes that shows the audience she wants to help. But she is only four.

This is what her story would be like if it were a Hollywood film, but this is her reality.

Svoboda-Stel sits in the middle of a coffee shop telling her whole life story to a newspaper student reporting to the school she left behind. She introduces herself as Hattie. If she had not left STA, she would currently be a senior. She has her bleach blond hair clipped back, wearing a black dress and sliding her STA class ring up and down her finger.

Svoboda-Stel begins to tell her story, describing the two different worlds she had been living in the three years of her high school life.
“I basically loved STA,” Svoboda-Stel said. “I felt like an empowered young woman when I went there. I just got to the point where STA couldn’t offer me anymore.”

Deciding to act
Svoboda-Stel sits in a classroom for her junior math class, dressed in tartan plaid, staring at a word problem. Her eyes droop down as she shakes her head keeping her from falling asleep. As she looks around her, girls giggle and discuss their Saturday night plans. Hattie does not partake in the conversation because she will be spending her Saturday night at a meeting for confused LGBTQ, helping these kids to become content with their lives. She watches the clock, ticking, ticking, ticking, as the teacher in front of her explains graphing with decimals.

“I wanted to be doing something rather than studying about doing something,” Svoboda-Stel said, a look of determination in her eyes.

This is where EQUAL came into play. EQUAL is an organization that brings together kids that are confused about their sexuality, in addition to trying to gain rights for homosexuals and transgenders.

Making a difference
Svoboda-Stel stands among a crowd of at least 100 on a cold winter afternoon. One can easily spot the breath of the people, the redness of their skin. “WE ARE EQUAL” they scream, “LOVE IS LOVE.”

They are dressed in large wool winter coats, with gay pride posters scattered throughout. Many have their faces painted and rainbow emblems are everywhere. Svoboda-Stel is smiling, professing to the people of the streets her beliefs about accepting homosexuals, transgenders and everyone in between.

According to Svoboda-Stel, their meetings are powerful, and the crowd is practically the opposite compared to an STA classroom. Around fifty people pile into a room to watch a lively man preach to them. He has pink, shoulder length hair and calls himself Wick.

Svoboda-Stel sits in the crowd, listening intently to what he is saying. She knows this is where she belongs.

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The Plan
Svoboda-Stel spent her junior year making gay right posters, speaking in front of crowds and doing endless research about how to get a GED and what colleges offer the best human rights programs.

Svoboda-Stel sat down with her parents to talk about what she wants to do with her life. She tells them the plan.
Drop out of high school after junior year.
Get her GED.
Intern for EQUAL.
Attend Webster College in St. Louis the next spring semester, earning degree in human rights and social concerns.
When asked where she would want to go from there, Svoboda-Stel mentioned the woman study’s program Webster offers. She wants to help human trafficking refugees in Thailand.
Her parents looked at her, having expected that this would eventually come.
They gave her their approval, applauding her for wanting to dedicate her life to helping others.

What STA thinks
Admissions director Roseann Hudnall sits at her large desk, hands crossed, eyes focused, red lip stick glimmering in the light. She is asked what she thinks of Svoboda-Stel’s situation. Answering on instinct, “Sometimes we think we know what we want but further experiences help us to define what we want. Limiting that to me is kind of unfortunate”.

Some students have a different idea though. Junior Libby Torres smiles when Svoboda-Stel’s name is brought up. “Seriously, mad props to her for going after what she wants.”

Svoboda-Stel looks off into the distance, trying to describe her decision to leave the Academy. “Some people take a gap year to figure their [stuff] out. I’m not really figuring my [stuff] out, I’m just doing my [stuff].”