We Wear the Word is a project of the 2025–26 cohort of the National Youth Advocacy Corps (NYAC), a fellowship of the Rustin Institute. The Institute began in 2015 as the LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, and has since become an independent nonprofit named for Bayard Rustin.
NYAC started in 2023 and has run four cohorts so far. It brings together advocates aged 15 to 25, not only LGBTQ+ youth, and pairs them in small teams that spend a year building a project around a shared social justice issue, with mentors, training, and a national network behind them. Partners include Georgia State University, Georgia Tech, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and each cohort presents its work at the IGNYTE symposium.
Every NYAC project rests on four pillars:
Intersectionality: looking at each issue through race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and the ways they overlap.
Research: starting from what is already known, then adding something new.
Advocacy history: learning from earlier civil and human rights movements.
Public policy: asking what law or policy should change, and proposing it.
Each year’s NYAC cohort wears that year’s shirt at the IGNYTE symposium.
2025 · Shirt 01 · Bayard RustinThe NYAC cohort at IGNYTE 2025. Our team is among them.2026 · Shirt 02 · Urvashi VaidThe NYAC cohort at IGNYTE 2026.
The team
Siddharth Sundar, “Sid” (he/him) is a senior from The Harker School in San Jose, California. He is passionate
about engineering, research, and community mentorship. He is currently researching an affordable
water quality sensor to help underserved communities monitor their drinking water to make clean
water more accessible. In addition, he had the privilege of working with a Vietnamese tech
company that utilized AI to help improve customer service relations. A dedicated athlete,
Siddharth plays center for his varsity football team, where he values discipline, teamwork, and
resilience and was named 2nd Team All Conference as a junior. Outside of school, he is part of
the robotics team, and he mentors younger students in First Lego League (FLL), helping them
troubleshoot code, design mechanisms, and build confidence for competitions. Siddharth hopes to
continue using his skills to create technological solutions that are both innovative and
impactful for the community.
Ayla Hamilton
(she/her) is a 16-year-old high school student located in New York’s Hudson Valley and is an IB
Diploma candidate. She is a passionate musician, photographer, and activist. Playing in
Woodstock’s Rock Academy, Ayla sings and plays guitar at a variety of local venues. She is
currently working at Thrift 2 Fight in Tivoli, NY, a second-hand sustainable thrift store where
proceeds go to a variety of grassroots social justice organizations. A participant in Woodstock
Film Festival’s Youth Film Lab, her short film will premiere at the 2025 Woodstock Film
Festival. Her photography, which is focused on the female perspective, has been featured in
several publications and galleries, including Monochromica, The University of Pennsylvania
Journal of Arts and Sciences, Schweinfurth Art Center and Monmouth University Art Center. She is
passionate about protecting women’s rights, queer liberation, and racial justice. Ayla also
happens to be interning at the LGBTQ+ Institute at the National Center for Civil and Human
Rights.
Andrew Mak (he/his)
is a junior at Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, NY. He founded Warm New York in
2023 with the mission of helping people in need both physically and mentally by providing them
with their basic clothing needs. Warm New York has since grown rapidly by establishing
partnerships with local schools and sports and religious organizations to collect clothing,
while distributing them both locally and globally into communities in need. He is also a Varsity
basketball player and recently won the Nassau County and Long Island Class AAA Championships and
also reached the New York State Championship game. His passion for basketball has been
consistent throughout his life and has extended to him coaching and mentoring children, ages
four to fourteen, within his community starting when he was in eighth grade. This work has given
Andrew the opportunity to establish his own private basketball coaching services where he has
helped individuals, teams, and fellow coaches in need of guidance when it comes to basketball
and communicating with their players. Andrew’s interests include team and group dynamics, mental
wellness, and human connection.
