Eliana Gayle-Schneider is a junior at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School in Manhattan, with a love of all things literary and musical. Her passion for writing includes poetry as well as playwriting, creating her own dramatic scripts, and working with budding young writers. Eliana spends much of her time singing with the Heschel Harmonizers, a leading Jewish high school a cappella group, and performing in school plays. She has also been a member of a traveling troupe of "Sosua, Dare to Dance Together," a Jewish-Dominican teen production exploring issues of discrimination and identity. Eliana is an activist at heart, and looks forward to adding her own voice to the Rising Voices Blog.