Rye High School senior Madeline “Maddy” Morgan received the annual Youth Human Rights Award from the Rye City Human Rights Commission at the city council meeting on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. She was selected from a pool of nominees ages 18 or younger who live in Rye or attend any of the schools in Rye City or Rye Neck who have made contributions or aided in human rights in Rye City through education, activism, and/ or community service.
Morgan, who is headed to Villanova University in the fall to study nursing, is president of the University of Michigan’s Peer to Peer Club at Rye High School, where she and the fifty students in the club work to tackle the stigmas around asking for mental health assistance.
“I’m very honored for this award and I definitely would not have been able to do it without Rita… and my family as well,” Morgan told the packed city council meeting, referring to Human Rights Commission Chair Rita Capek. “And I’m excited to hopefully make some more change in our world.”
Watch the presentation and read Capek’s prepared remarks:
2025/26 Rye City Human Rights Youth Award — Madeline “Maddy” Morgan – remarks from Rita Capek:
The Rye City Human Rights Commission is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2025/26 Youth Award, open to individuals 18 or younger who live in Rye City or attend any of the schools in Rye City or Rye Neck. Nominations were solicited from the community at large. The individual being honored today was nominated based on their efforts in fostering human rights or relations in Rye City through education, activism, or community service.
This year, we are proud to present the award to Madeline Morgan — known to everyone as Maddy — a young woman whose capacity for compassion has quietly shaped the lives of everyone around her.
Maddy’s story is one of showing up in ways big and small, for those surrounding her at school, in her relationships, and in her community.
As President of the University of Michigan’s Peer to Peer Club at Rye High School, she leads 50 students in tackling one of youth mental health’s most stubborn barriers: the shame that keeps young people from asking for help. She co-advises the LET’S Club — Let’s End the Stigma — where students gather to talk honestly about stress, emotions, and the quieter struggles of growing up. She also co-hosts the Rye Student Forum, where students have the conversations that rarely happen in a classroom.
As a Team Leader for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, she and a team of 15 others, raised nearly $70,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She serves as a partner and coach for Rye High School’s Unified Basketball team, practicing and playing alongside her peers with special needs.
She has responded to real 911 calls as a junior EMT with the Port Chester/Rye/Rye Brook Ambulance Corps, earning seven certifications along the way. She has cooked meals for families at the Ronald McDonald House, shoveled out elderly neighbors during snowstorms, and welcomed freshmen as a Student Ambassador so no one had to figure out high school alone.
This past academic year, Maddie served as the Youth Liaison to the Rye City Human Rights Commission attending and participating in the monthly meetings helping shape the Commission’s goals and initiatives. In February, Maddie was part of the panel for the screening of the film “The Hidden History of Slavery in New York” for Black History Month. She sat alongside the Emmy Award winning producer of the film as well as the Executive Director, Westchester County Human Rights Commission and other Human Rights leaders from Westchester.
And in the middle of all of this, Maddy has launched her own original neuroscience research on the effects of peer pressure in adolescents — backed by a grant from the Rye Fund for Education and supported by a mentor at UMass Amherst — where she is reading live brainwave data to better understand one of the defining challenges of young people today.
She is proof that you don’t have to wait until you’re grown to change the world around you. Congratulations, Maddy. This award is richly deserved.
In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
