Wednesday, July 6th, 2016 by Kyle Tribble
“I am one of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the shadows of the United States” high school senior Larissa Martinez announced to her school, and the world, during her high school’s graduation ceremonies earlier this month. Class valedictorian with a 4.95 GPA and a full ride to Yale, Martinez fled Mexico City six […]
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Wednesday, June 15th, 2016 by Raluca Besliu
Talia Leman wanted to help the victims of the destructive and deadly Hurricane Katrina. Determined to help as much as possible, the ten year old planned to raise $1 million, which for most would seem a ludicrously ambitious goal, especially for a child her age. Talia managed to rally a children-led movement that reported not […]
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Wednesday, June 8th, 2016 by Raluca Besliu
Marian Bechtel, a 21-year-old student at Bryn Mawr College, is a pianist, scientist and anti-war activist. The young woman from Lancaster, Pennsylvania invented an inexpensive, quick and simple minesweeper that detects buried landmines using sound waves. The device is a standard metal detector with high-sensitivity microphones and a seismic detector attached to it. Marian’s […]
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Tuesday, May 10th, 2016 by Eva Reed
Family holidays evoke memories of long journeys, good weather and making new friends. When Jack Lanting and his family went from New Zealand to Thailand for a holiday in 2009, those new friends included Asian elephants. Jack, who was 8 years old at the time, was so moved by the plight of Thailand’s elephants that he […]
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Friday, June 26th, 2015 by Eva Reed
Tabitha Besley, 23, identifies as a queer femme; vegetarian; Taurus with Cancer rising, an Aries moon and lots of planets in the 10th house; and lover of all things polka dot. She is one of 60 young people worldwide—the only New Zealander—to receive the Queen’s Young Leader Award, an accolade for her work to ensure […]
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Thursday, April 23rd, 2015 by Raluca Besliu
In some countries around the world, such as Egypt, Kenya, and Romania, the education system is examination-oriented, meaning that test scores, rather than learning, become the ultimate goal of education. According to a report of the International Journal for Innovation Education and Research, this ultimately distorts students’ motivation and learning, by overstressing the importance of […]
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Sunday, April 19th, 2015 by Raluca Besliu
Tica Darie is a 22-year-old Romanian changemaker, who is proposing and building the path of sustainable development for the mining town of Rosia Montana, which has recently been a battlefield between a Canadian mining company and Romania’s citizens. The Canadian company, Gabriel Resources Ltd., was planning to use 40 tons of cyanide a day to […]
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Monday, March 2nd, 2015 by Raluca Besliu
A 2014 UNICEF report emphasized that Nepal is still among the top ten countries in the world, where child marriage is practiced. A staggering forty-one percent of girls marry before turning eighteen, while ten percent wed by the age of fifteen. Early weddings cause considerable hardships for girls, many of whom drop out of school and face domestic & sexual […]
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Friday, January 30th, 2015 by Nathaniel Sher
Friday, January 30, 2015, by Nathaniel Sher Since the United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1997, the former colony has been experiencing a political-cultural identity crisis. Under the “one country, two systems” policy, the island’s government has grown more and more economically reliant on—and politically controlled […]
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Saturday, January 17th, 2015 by Raluca Besliu
COBURWAS International Youth Organization to Transform Africa (CIYOTA) is a Ugandan-based non-profit started by three refugee youth in secondary school to address the educational problems and other challenges faced by Congolese refugees living in the Kyangwali refugee camp. The nonprofit, launched in 2005, now has over 10,000 members and volunteers from over 40 African countries […]
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Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
In Uganda, children with special needs are systematically prevented from succeeding academically and fulfilling their potential. There are an estimated 184,000 children in the country, who have some type of disability making it difficult for them to learn. These students often drop out of school due to poor performance, as they face constant physical abuse […]
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Monday, November 10th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Xander Gieryn is a 22-year-old from Wisconsin, living in Indianapolis, IN for the past four years. He describes himself as a service worker, concerned citizen, neighbor and student focused on building strong community relationships, in order to create a more sustainable way of living. He believes in bringing people together “through place-making, creating spaces Alongside […]
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Sunday, September 7th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Francis Ssuuna is a young social entrepreneur and a member of the Butterfly Project in Kampala, Uganda, training social entrepreneurship to young Ugandans from remote rural villages and disadvantaged urban slum districts, since 2009.Originally from a small Ugandan village, Lyantonde, Francis now lives in the Acholi Quarter, an underprivileged part of Kampala, where most people survive by selling stone quarried […]
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Friday, August 1st, 2014 by Angelica Pastrana
Cody Unser is an ambitious young woman who is rarely seen without her big smile. You would never be able to tell that when she was younger, she was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis (TM), a neurological condition that injures the spinal cord, leaving her paralyzed and restrained to a wheelchair. At the time of her […]
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Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 by Hannah Fragapane
After being sexually bullied as a child, Emily Lindin decided to take action and become a light at the end of the tunnel for so many women with experiences like hers. At age 11, Emily Lindin was sexually bullied and held the tainted reputation of “school slut” for several years. After an incident with her […]
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Monday, June 23rd, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Karrie Brown fell in love with Wet Seal clothes at the age of 15. Karrie, who has Down syndrome, thought the clothes were cute, comfy, and itch-free, and she started dreaming of the day when she could become a model for her favorite clothing store. Relentless in her vision, Karrie managed to turn her dream […]
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Sunday, June 15th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Sara Policastro is a freshman at George Washington University, pursuing a degree in Human Services and English. She is also one of the founders of the Student Center for African Research and Resolutions (SCARR). Sara is currently the Director of Operations of this student-led and run think tank that creates innovative solutions for solving some […]
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Sunday, June 1st, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Harnoor Gill is a 16-year-old from Georgetown, Canada, with a passion for volunteering. He was born in Hong Kong to Indian parents, but has lived in Canada most of his life. Currently in secondary school, Harnoor has been volunteering since he was three. At that tender age, he started going door-to-door to sell cookies to […]
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Sunday, March 30th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
We met Alex Sheen, the young founder of because I said I would, at his office in Rocky River, Ohio on a Sunday afternoon. The office area, spacious and relaxed, was generously offered to him for free by a local philanthropist, who reached out to Alex, after hearing about his initiative.
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Saturday, March 1st, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Noorjahan Akbar is a 22-year-old Afghani woman, who is the co-founder of Young Women for Change (YWC). The organization, started in 2011, was dedicated to advocating for rights of Afghan women at a national and international level and mobilizing men and women to speak up for the human rights of women. While working for the […]
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Wednesday, February 12th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Anita Haidary is a 21-year-old woman from Kabul, Afghanistan, who is the founder of an organization called Young Women for Change, fighting for women’s rights in her home country. Anita is passionate about film-making and the power and value it holds among its viewers as well as about understanding the complicated political and social systems […]
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Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 by Jenna Bellassai
“So. I’m a teenager and I wrote a book. And not just any book. A book about feminism. What kind of obviously pretentious and generally ridiculous teen does that?” This excerpt comes directly from the first page of Julie Zeilinger’s book, A Little F’d Up: Why Feminism is Not a Dirty Word. From girls’ anxiety […]
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Friday, January 10th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Khalida Brohi is a 24-year-old entrepreneur and women’s rights activists from Balochistan, a province in Pakistan. She is the founder of Sughar, an organization based out of Balochistan and Sindh aiming to empower tribal women, by developing their skills and providing them income-generating and learning opportunities. The ultimate aim is to enable them to take […]
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Wednesday, January 8th, 2014 by Leih Boyden
Recently named Young Conservationist of the Year 2013 from Australian Geographic, Linh Do has been working from a young age to create lasting social change in her community and across the globe. In 2006, at the age of 15, the Melbourne-based teenager became determined to bring positive environmental change. She started the Change A Million Light […]
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Saturday, December 28th, 2013 by Ravneet Sandhu
“It will be very hard to convince everyone in the world to handle their plastics responsibly, but what we humans are very good in, is inventing technical solutions to our problems. And that’s what we’re doing.” – Boyan Slat Boyan Slat, a 19-year-old from the Dutch town of Delft, combines environmentalism, creativity and technology to […]
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Friday, December 27th, 2013 by Charlie Butts
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Tuesday, December 24th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Anton Abele is the youngest Member of Parliament (MP) in the world. At the age of 18, he was elected as an MP for Stockholm County in the 2010 general elections. He represents the Moderate Party, which he has stressed, is in a process of renewal, as it is introducing increasing numbers of young people. […]
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Friday, December 6th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Aya Chebbi is a 26-year-old Tunisian blogger and activist, whose blog, Proudly Tunisian, translates her passion to serve, inspire and strive for human rights, peace and social justice. She was recently declared one of Africa’s 28 most promising women leaders by the Moremi Initiative’s Leadership Development (MILEAD). Aya started blogging during Tunisia 2011 Revolution, when […]
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Friday, November 29th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Following his surprise presidential victory in June 2013, Hassan Rouhani promised to bring change and moderation in Iran, make tangible changes in his first 100 days of office, save the economy, and ensure that international sanctions were lifted by ending the nuclear standoff. November 25, 2013 marked the first 100 days of Rouhani’s presidency. While […]
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Monday, November 25th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Best Aiyorworth, a 21-year-old woman from Uganda, has won the 2013 Anzisha Grant Prize, worth $25,000 for the initiative she is leading: Girls’ Power Micro Lending Organization (GIPOMO). Through her business, Best aims to support girls in the Nebbi District of Northern Uganda by helping their mothers, through loans offered to start or improve their […]
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Friday, September 20th, 2013 by Charlie Butts
You would think that if you checked your Facebook page just before your big race in the Olympics that you would find all kinds of encouragement from your fellow countrymen… but what Tahmina Kohistani found was hate messages. As the first ever woman to compete in the Olympics from Afghanistan, she felt terrific pressure to “go […]
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Friday, August 2nd, 2013 by Jordan Doll
Youths as young as 14 want the vote. Some of them are making progress. In May, Takoma Park, a progressive community in Maryland, lowered the voting age from 18 to 16 for municipal elections. Though only affecting city elections, the success was, articulated by Jeffery Nadel “in legislative terms, the first big step.” Jeffery Nadel […]
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Saturday, July 20th, 2013 by Jordan Doll
Alexandra Brodsky, a recent graduate of Yale University, is taking a stand against sexual violence. Sexual assault is frighteningly common in the US, especially on college and university campuses. The data indicates that one in four US college women have survived rape or attempted rape. Still, estimates suggest less than 5% of these assaults are reported […]
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Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
In March 2013, the British Department for Education revealed new draft guidelines for key stages 1 to 3, covering children under 14, that excluded debate about climate change from the national curriculum. Outraged by this decision, 15-year-old Esha Marwaha, a student at the Heathland School in Hounslow and a member of the UK Youth Climate Coalition […]
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Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 by Jordan Doll
UPDATE– NIYA’s Activism Continues. View the original article in the second half of this post. Youth involved in NIYA or the National Immigration Youth Alliance continue to fight for what they believe. Claudia Munoz, a 27 year-old member of NIYA, was intentionally arrested two months ago. A young woman who immigrated from Mexico to the […]
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Sunday, July 14th, 2013 by Charlie Butts
In a powerful and moving speech at the United Nations, Malala Yousafzai called on women and girls not to rely on men to provide them education, but to demand it themselves. She said,“Malala Day is not my day, today is for… every girl who has stood for her rights.” Showing signs of a nearly complete […]
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Tuesday, July 9th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Sixteen-year-old Lisa Peng is taking on the Chinese government, in order to produce the release of her father, Peng Ming, a prominent human rights and democracy activist. Lisa, who is a student at Laurel School in Cleveland, Ohio, last saw her father in 2004. Mr. Peng was travelling to Myanmar when he was imprisoned for life, after […]
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Friday, June 28th, 2013 by Jordan Doll
National immigration reform is on the agenda in Washington DC. If passed, reform will likely include tighter border security and a path to citizenship for immigrants who entered the country illegally. Reform was constructed and will be hashed out by congressmen, lobbyists and other breeds of politicians. But, as the bill slowly progresses through the […]
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Sunday, June 23rd, 2013 by Charlie Butts
A mammoth youth-led movement is underway to ramp up the pressure on governments across organize the muscle of tens of thousands of young people to force governments to answer why they haven’t acted on climate change yet. Five hundred students from more than one hundred countries are gathering in Istanbul, Turkey beginning Monday, June 24, 2013, to […]
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Monday, June 3rd, 2013 by Charlie Butts
Kanhaiya Kumari was born in an Indian prison where he was held until he was six years old. When he was finally released he was placed in a juvenile home. He never stopped thinking of his mother, Vijaya. She was left in prison for a crime she said she never did. But since she couldn’t […]
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Friday, May 31st, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Savannah Britt became the youngest magazine publisher in the world when, at the tender age of 12, she started publishing a hard copy magazine entitled Girlpez Fashion Magazine, to accompany her website for teen girls, Girlpez.com. By then already, Savannah was not a newcomer when it came to the publishing world. She had published her […]
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Friday, May 24th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
In 2012, 9-year-old Martha Payne, a Scottish schoolgirl from Lochgilphead, discovered her passion for writing after publishing a newspaper article on the Titanic’s sinking. Source: Marysmeals.org.uk Looking for a way to write everyday, Martha and her dad created a blog that documented Martha’s school lunches. Martha was coming home hungry because of the poor quality […]
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Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Hannah Taylor was five years-old when her and her mother drove passed a man eating out of a garbage can in Winnipeg, Canada. Puzzled, Hannah asked her mother why he would do this. She introduced Hannah to the dire reality of homelessness. For the rest of the year, the story of the man troubled Hannah […]
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Monday, May 20th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
When he was two years old, Cris “Kesz” Valdez’s father forced him to scavenge at a dump site in Cavite City, situated not far from Manila. His father used to beat Kesz and use the money collected for drugs and alcohol. When he turned four, Kesz ran away from home and lived on the streets, continuing […]
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Charlie Butts
Few students could imagine speaking at a United Nations Conference on Climate Change with thousands of delegates from all over the world, but that is exactly what Anjali Appadurai, a student from a small college in Maine, did. And her speech bluntly called out the failures of the adult delegates to agree on meaningful solutions […]
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
In 2009, after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery, then 22 years-old Yael Cohen decided to start a non-profit organization called F*ck Cancer. Cohen recalls why she decided to create the organization: “The movement started from my head in my hands, defeated and defiant, wanting to support my mom. I decided I would […]
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Charlie Butts
A small girl in China is taking on the giant Chinese government because she wants to go to school. Zhan Haite, 15, like most teens, lives where her parents live. So when her parents moved to Shanghai for work, she moved too. But currently in China, unless you are rich, you can’t go to high […]
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Chris Landers
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Amy Campbell
The past presidential election was one of excitement and intensity, some of which stemmed from the presidential debates throughout October. The debate of note was the second one- a “town hall” styled debate that took place at Hofstra University on October 16, where, for the first Presidential debate in 20 years, a woman was chosen […]
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Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 by Charlie Butts
At thirteen, a Connecticut middle-school student, Cassandra Lin was upset to find that many people in her community couldn’t afford heating fuel. She was already bothered by the world-wide issue of global warming. Instead of thinking since she is just a kid it isn’t her problem, she made it her problem. And because she didn’t […]
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