Talia Stein, 17, is the founder and current president of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Adlai E. Stevenson High School. After three years of fighting to get a safe space for GLBT youth at her school, Talia and outside sources worked together to get group approval in February 2004. In addition to pioneering a safe space for GLBT students in her school community, Talia is a leader in the Chicagoland community. She is an intern at GLSEN Chicago and has helped plan summit events as well as the Night of Noise Rally. She is a co-chair on the Jump Start Leadership Team, an organization which lets students organize summits and teacher training events, conduct climate surveys, and help start student clubs. Talia has traveled to Springfield and Indianapolis to do workshops and training through the Jump Start team, and is also one of only 10 students on their National Conference Leadership Team, which allows her to plan activities and outreach to students.
Her role models have been Lynly Egyes and Chris Tuttle from the Jump Start Leadership Team, because they have been selfless, encouraging and an inspiration for her hard work, she said. Talia is also active outside of the GLBT community as the vice-president of the Diversity Club at her school, whose goal is to increase awareness of different ethnic and racial backgrounds.