When Brooklyn Kemp first stepped through the front doors of Claremont Secondary, studing global issues was the last thing on her mind.

“Being the fourteen-year-old, pink-loving girly girl that I was, I was just really stoked on high school because I was like, ‘That’s right, I’m going to go shopping and to parties,’” Kemp reminisces. “I was really into being social and when it came to school I was like, meh, whatever.”

Fast forward three years.

With pixie-punk strawberry-blonde hair, edgy yet classy piercings in her nose and tongue, and a contagious laugh that immmediately makes you feel like you’ve been sharing steamy secrets over lattes forever, the soon-to-be high school graduate isn’t the all-play, no-work type of girl she thought she’d be. In fact, she’s become the opposite.

Kemp has become an inspiration to the staff and students of Claremont Secondary. She’s headed up projects like the 30 Hour Famine, published a poem about African abductions in the highly respected Claremont Review and toured schools in the Victoria area to promote awareness of child soldiers in Africa.

It was the first day of Grade 11 global studies, a course that involved group discussions about world issues, that Kemp’s life changed.

Kemp remembers there were no text books required, very few exams and little homework. But that’s not why she loved it. She was drawn to the fact that she could learn about poverty, civil wars and current humanitarian projects simply by talking about them.

“I was so happy,” Kemp said with a smile. “I felt like I finally found my little thing. I had friends who were figure skaters and basketball players and swimmers and stuff, and I felt like I didn’t have a ‘thing,’ you know?

“No one knew me for being a part of a sport or something, and now this is it. I get to help other people, and what could be better than helping other people?”

During one global studies class, the students watched a documentary called Invisible Children, a film that unearthed how African kids were being abducted and forced to join the rebel army (called the LRA, or the Lord’s Resistance Army) or become sex slaves.

“Sitting there watching that film was incredible,” Kemp said. “I was so moved by it. I went home after I saw the film and was sitting in my bedroom thinking, ‘I can’t sit here and not do something. What if it were my younger sister? My cousin? How could I just sit there and not do something? It’s not right.”

For Kemp, graduation means celebrating all she’s accomplished up to this point. And when asked how she feels about finishing school and taking on the real world, she sums it up in two words.

“Scared. And nervous!” she laughs.

But it seems like Kemp’s got nothing to be worried about. She plans on being a roadie—a touring speaker who promotes awareness of child soldiers—for the Invisible Children organization in January 2010 and going back to school in September 2010 to take the Global Stewardship program at Vancouver’s Capilano College.

“The most fantastic thing would be to have my own organization and help people in the world that need help, and get other students involved,” Kemp said of her post-college aspirations.

Kemp also said that becoming a global studies high school teacher might be on her to-do list. With a smile, she looks down and fiddles with a wooden braclet decorating one of her thin wrists.

The bracelet was part of a campaign to raise proceeds for displaced Ugandan families, and buying it was just another small step towards making a difference.

Kemp also notes how the bracelet came with a DVD that tells the life story of a Ugandan girl named Rosalind who, despite her battle with AIDS, loves singing and Spiderman.

No matter the career path she chooses in the future, Kemp makes it clear that she’s dedicated to helping all the little Rosalinds in the world.

“You know she’s living through these tragedies, and Rosalind kind of takes you through her life [on the DVD]. If she has hope, I have to have hope that there’s something that can be done.”

aash@tc.canwest.com