Senior Katherine Schug has been awarded The Union County Human Relations Commission’s 2018 Unity Award for Achievement by a Student. The award program honors ordinary individuals who do extraordinary things. On behalf of Union County, the award is given to those who foster human rights and relations, those who eradicate hate and those who touch the lives of others in simple ways, yet with a overwhelming impact. In only the 6th Grade, Schug created “Teen FAAB,” a website that focuses on food allergies and anti-bullying.
Over the years, “Teen Faab”’s popularity has increased. Schug has traveled to Washington D.C and Las Vegas, giving speeches and attending conferences as an ambassador of FAACT (Food Allergies Anaphylaxis Connection Team) and FARE Teen Summits (Food Allergies Research and Education). Schug has empowered many young adults with her blog posts and menu options for those who struggle with food allergies.
“Basically I attended conferences called FARE Teen Summits so I went to one of them and I saw a bunch of presentations,” said Schug. “I decided I was going to make a website; it was small at first and I just started writing more and doing more and it became bigger.”
Schug has impacted the lives of many teens as she provides advice and ways to manage food allergies in specific situations.
“A year after I started my website in 2014, somebody emailed me and said, you give lots of people advice, do you want to give a presentation?” said Schug. “That was the first presentation I had in D.C and from there, I started doing annual ones at the FARE Teen Summit for about 3 years and then also joined another organization, FAACT,  and I spoke at their conferences in Las Vegas.”
Schug continues to inspire young adults and hopes to extend “Teen FAAB” further with a mobile app that provides its users with allergenic menus and advice.
“It’s basically a place where people can access special menus for their food allergies right on their iPhone,” said Schug
The 2018 Union County Unity Award will be presented to Schug on May 7th at Kean University.