America’s Top Young Scientist, Maanasa Mendu, works to fix the energy crisis

Saturday, June 10th, 2017 by Jamie Potter

Maanasa Mendu is passionate about fixing the energy crisis in the world today. After a trip to India, where Mendu saw a large population of people without electricity or clean water, she became inspired to design an affordable device to generate clean energy. Mendu knew of wind energy’s huge potential. According to the American Wind […]

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Alex Sheen Renews Faith in Promises

Friday, May 12th, 2017 by Jamie Potter

 When Alex Sheen was in his mid-twenties, he lost his father. If there was one thing he admired about the man, it was how he honored commitments. He kept the promises he made. This is what sparked the “Because I Said I Would” movement. It started with just a couple of notes he handed […]

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Anjali Appadurai, a predecessor to Greta, gives powerful speech to UN Conference on Climate

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2017 by Jamie Potter

Anjali Appadurai spoke eloquently and unapologetically at the United Nations Conference in South Africa, in 2011, on Climate Change. Advocates such as Anjali have helped pave the way to the break through agreements made on this issue, such as the Paris Agreement.  In her speech, Anjali urges UN members to listen to the science that […]

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Teen Makes Cheap Machine to Print Braille

Friday, March 10th, 2017 by Ravneet Kaur Sandhu

When you see a flier for donations for the blind, do you give a few banknotes and then forget about it? Or do dig deeper into their hardships and find a way to make their lives better on a longer term? Shubham Banerjee, a thirteen-year old Californian teen, chose the second option and ended up […]

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High School Valedictorian Fights for Undocumented Immigrants

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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10 Year-Old Raised $10 million For Victims

Wednesday, June 15th, 2016 by Raluca Besliu
10 Year-Old Raised $10 million For Victims

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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She Finds Landmines with Music

Wednesday, June 8th, 2016 by Raluca Besliu
She Finds Landmines with Music

  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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A HS Freshman’s Cancer Breakthrough

Tuesday, February 16th, 2016 by Olivia Saine
A HS Freshman’s Cancer Breakthrough

  Jack Andraka was a high school freshman in 2012 when a close family friend died of pancreatic cancer. Deeply affected, he was motivated to read up on the disease and found that diagnosis is usually in a late stage when treatment is ineffective and there is a very low survival rate. Jack was shocked […]

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Making Lemonade and Hope from Lemons

Thursday, June 25th, 2015 by Mihaela Bogdan
Making Lemonade and Hope from Lemons

Alexandra Scott was born healthy in 1996 in Manchester, Connecticut. However, when Alex was nine months old, her mother realized that something was wrong with her little girl and started going to a doctor to seek advice and solutions. When she was four, Alex received a stem cell transplant. At that moment, Alex told her […]

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How Derek Pacque turned a Pet Peeve into Profit

Tuesday, June 9th, 2015 by Emily Dallas
How Derek Pacque turned a Pet Peeve into Profit

Derek Pacque was just a junior in college when he formed a coat checking business, now called CoatChex in 2010. Interested in inventing from a young age, he decided to study entrepreneurship at Indiana University. In one of his classes, Derek was directed to make a list of “pain points” and potential solutions. One of […]

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Prizeo Re-shapes Philanthropy

Tuesday, March 24th, 2015 by Leih Boyden
Prizeo Re-shapes Philanthropy

Interested in entering to win an intimate family dinner in New York City with Lady Gaga while supporting the Born This Way Foundation? How about supporting sarcoma cancer research by winning a trip to the set of The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay? Bryan Baum, age 24 and co-founder of Prizeo, is re-inventing philanthropy for our […]

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Young Changemaker Brings Giggles to Children

Sunday, February 22nd, 2015 by Mihaela Bogdan
Young Changemaker Brings Giggles to Children

Jessica Steinberg started her nonprofit, Giveable Giggles, in 2008, when she was only 13 years-old. The organization’s mission is to reproduce conditions which create opportunities for children, (specific to their context), to achieve laughter, leadership and learning on a consistent basis. The organization’s activities have been carried out all over the world, including Israel, Jordan, […]

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Ashley M. Williams provides Millennials a journalism launchpad

Thursday, February 12th, 2015 by Raluca Besliu
Ashley M. Williams provides Millennials a journalism launchpad

Many young people want to become journalists, but find it difficult to gain experience and break into a profession dominated by established journalists with years of expertise behind them. Ashley M. Williams, a 26-year-old journalist, who has published for NBC News, WBAL Radio and USA TODAY, understood this issue and decided to create a platform […]

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Matt Murphy, serial entrepreneur, helps young people have meaningful international travel experiences

Saturday, January 17th, 2015 by Mihaela Bogdan
Matt Murphy, serial entrepreneur, <?php the_subheading(); ?> helps young people have meaningful international travel experiences

Matthew Murphy is a 25-years-old young entrepreneur from Petoskey, a small town in Michigan, United States. He currently runs two companies – Global Citizens Travel LLC, which he founded in 2011, and Kids in the Game, which he joined in 2012. Being an entrepreneur was almost a way of life growing up, as Matt had […]

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Palmer Freeman Luckey: Bridging the Gap between Reality and Fantasy

Saturday, January 17th, 2015 by Nakita Mason
Palmer Freeman Luckey: Bridging the Gap between Reality and Fantasy

As any serious gamer knows, the most important part of game play is the interaction process and the level of immersion which can be achieved. Traditionally, game developers have accomplished this by modifying controllers and toying with perspective, but it is with head mounted displays (virtual reality headsets) that true immersion is achieved. However, for […]

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Xander Gieryn brings social change through food security, housing co-operatives and music

Monday, November 10th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Xander Gieryn brings social change through food security, housing co-operatives and music

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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George Burgess- The Serial Entrepreneur

Sunday, October 12th, 2014 by Ravneet Kaur Sandhu
George Burgess- The Serial Entrepreneur

What should teachers do when their students are e-mailing in class? One response would be to confiscate the device and give detention, after a thorough scolding. Or you could do what George Burgess’s geography teacher, Will Williams, did when he found George emailing a developer- help him write the content for the first app- a […]

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Giving Hope to Many from a Wheelchair

Friday, August 1st, 2014 by Angelica Pastrana
Giving Hope to Many from a Wheelchair

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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16 Yr-old’s App Tracks the Influence of Cash in Congress

Monday, July 21st, 2014 by Caroline Kinnen
16 Yr-old’s App Tracks the Influence of Cash in Congress

Although Nick Rubin does not meet the age requirement to cast a vote, he’s still found a way to express his voice. He’s only 16 years old, but he thinks it’s important for kids his age to care about the political system they are growing up in. This system, that these same kids will someday […]

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Called a “Slut”…Her Unslut Project Fights Back

Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 by Hannah Fragapane
Called a “Slut”…Her Unslut Project Fights Back

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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Down syndrome Doesn’t Stop Her from Modeling

Monday, June 23rd, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Down syndrome Doesn’t Stop Her from Modeling

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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Student, 17, Invents Life-Saving Miracle Gel

Monday, June 16th, 2014 by Angelica Pastrana
Student, 17, Invents Life-Saving Miracle Gel

It’s a sunny day, and you are driving to get your morning coffee. Everything seems to be going the same as usual, until a car swerves into you and crashes your car into a pole. Your ­­­arm is spewing blood – what do you do? At the age of 17, Joe Landolina came up with […]

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Ending Hunger- One Garden At A Time

Sunday, June 15th, 2014 by Ravneet Kaur Sandhu

When Katie Stagliano was just nine in 2008, she came home with a cabbage seedling as a part of a third grade program with Bonnie Plants. She took care of it, watering it, weeding around it, fertilizing it, and it soon grew to an impressive 40 kg. Realizing that this cabbage needed a special home, […]

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Bullied youth has passion to help people: meets many new friends

Sunday, June 1st, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Bullied youth has passion to help people: meets many new friends

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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Boy empowers children to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals

Sunday, May 4th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Boy empowers children to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals

When he was 9-years-old, Dylan Mahalingam founded Lil’MDGs, an international development organization aiming to leverage the power of the Internet and social media to educate, engage, inspire and empower children and young people from across the world to work together to advance the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs were eight international […]

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Who was behind the “I Killed a Man” video that went viral?

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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Surbhi Sarna Fights Against Ovarian Cancer

Friday, March 21st, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Surbhi Sarna Fights Against Ovarian Cancer

Starting at the age of 13, Surbhi Sarna experienced such intense abdominal pain that she would faint. The pain was sharp; it felt like being stabbed with a knife, whose handle was constantly being twisted.  Doctors first assumed Surbhi’s pain was appendicitis, then they presumed it might be ovarian cancer. The only way to determine […]

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Tyler Hadzicki reinvents the bicycle wheel

Friday, March 14th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Tyler Hadzicki reinvents the bicycle wheel

Few people would think of reconfiguring the design of the traditional bicycle, a product whose simplicity and efficiency seem to have reached its pinnacle and did not require any changes.  Tyler Hadzicki did not agree. He believed there was room for improvement. So, when he was 14-years-old, he decided to reinvent the bicycle wheel, by […]

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Eco-Friendly Designer, Coder, CEO, is only 14

Saturday, March 1st, 2014 by Ravneet Kaur Sandhu
Eco-Friendly Designer, Coder, CEO, is only 14

Maya Shea Penn is a remarkable fourteen year-old girl from Atlanta, Georgia. Her already impressive feats include, but are not limited to, being a CEO of her own company, Maya Ideas, which she started at the age of eight and which only uses eco-friendly fabrics for her hand-crafted clothing designs, as well as building her […]

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Easton LaChappelle – Wonder Boy of Prosthetics

Monday, February 3rd, 2014 by Ravneet Kaur Sandhu
Easton LaChappelle – Wonder Boy of Prosthetics

When Easton LaChappele was fourteen, he came up with an idea to build a wireless robotic hand controlled by a wireless controlled glove. Unlike the idle drams of the regular teenager, this teenager from a sleepy town in Colorado made sure that his dreams saw light one day. It was one of the most practical […]

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12-Year-Old Robotics Genius Finds Joy In Creation

Tuesday, January 28th, 2014 by Leih Boyden
12-Year-Old Robotics Genius Finds Joy In Creation

While most children go outside or down to the basement to play video games after school, 12-year-old Rohan Agrawal, from California, heads straight to the mini-studio in his garage to happily create robots.  During an interview with Yahoo news, Rohan stated, “Robotics is my overriding passion because you do all of this work… and then […]

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‘Feminism’ is not a Dirty Word

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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Emmanuel Bishop: The Teenage Violinist with Down Syndrome

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014 by Raluca Besliu
Emmanuel Bishop: The Teenage Violinist with Down Syndrome

16-year-old Emmanuel Bishop is a prodigy violinist and polyglot—who speaks English, Spanish, French and Latin—with Down syndrome. Despite his genetic condition, which occurs when an individual has a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21, he is an ambitious young man who lets nothing stand in the way of his dreams. Emmanuel, an only […]

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Young Nigerian-American Runs Consultancy Firm

Thursday, January 16th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu

Yetunde Adeola Odugbesan-Omede is an extremely busy and involved 26-year-old woman.She is the Founder and Executive Director of Young Woman’s Guide, Inc., the founder and CEO of Yetunde Global Consulting and Creator of Putting Your Best Self Forward. She is Nigerian-American and her passions include leadership, women empowerment, human rights, politics, writing and public speaking. […]

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Young Man with Down syndrome Runs Restaurant

Friday, January 10th, 2014 by Raluca Besliu

Tim Harris is the 27-year-old owner of Tim’s Place, a thriving and popular restaurant in Albuquerque, New Mexico that serves ‘breakfast, lunch and hugs’ and calls itself ‘the friendliest restaurant in the world.’ Born with Down syndrome, Tim started dreaming of opening up his own restaurant ever since he was 14. Tim may be the […]

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First female Pulitzer prize-winning author Edith Wharton got her start at age 15

Friday, January 10th, 2014 by Jenna Bellassai

In her book The Children, Edith Wharton wrote, “When people ask for time, it’s always for time to say no. Yes has one more letter in it, but it doesn’t take half as long to say.” An American author, who wrote observations like the above during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Wharton won the […]

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Ground-breaking cancer test invented by teen prodigy

Thursday, January 9th, 2014 by Ravneet Sandhu

At the age of sixteen, Jack Andraka is a prize winning scientist, who has revolutionized cancer diagnostics. In May 2012, he won the grand prize Gordon E. Moore Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, worth $75,000, beating out 1,500 participants from over 70 countries in the competition considered the Olympics of Science. […]

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Mo’s Bows: Cool Bow Ties by a Preteen

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014 by Raluca Besliu

Moziah Bridges started his own bow tie company, Mo’s Bows, in Memphis, Tennessee in 2011, when he was only 9-years-old. At that age, his grandmother started teaching him how to sow, in order to help him make his own bow tie out of scrap material, after he couldn’t find any cool and fun ones on […]

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An education like no other: hack-education

Friday, December 27th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu

Thirteen-year-old Logan LaPlante has an education like few other teenagers in the world. He is hack-schooled. The teenager has a profound admiration for hackers, which he does not perceive as computer aficionados, who spread viruses and break into official website, but as “people who challenge and change the systems to make them work differently, to […]

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Ryan Hreljac: A First Grader’s Determination Leads to Drilling 100′s of Needed Wells

Friday, December 27th, 2013 by Charlie Butts

                                                                                                              […]

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Kuha’o Case: the blind piano prodigy who chooses to see no limits

Thursday, December 26th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu

Kuha’o Case, a 17-year-old piano prodigy from Hawaii, has been blind since infancy. Born two months premature, Kuha’o had to undergo a necessary operation, which saved his life, but took his vision. The young Hawaiian can play a song note for note after hearing it only once or twice, and the song remains forever imprinted […]

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Zenful Bites: Building a New Food System

Friday, October 11th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu

The food system today is not the one previous generations were used to. Genetic engineering and the agrochemical complex have “changed the way our food is produced, distributed and marketed, and, in many cases, not for the better” according to Greenpeace. For instance, the use of pesticides currently not only pollutes streams and wells and […]

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Jalen Brown helps the students of today become the teachers of tomorrow

Wednesday, August 28th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Jalen Brown helps the students of today become the teachers of tomorrow

Jalen Brown, 18, the National Vice-President of the Future Educators Association (FEA) and the founder of the Student Ambassador Association (SAA), aims to provide resources and guidance to students all over the United States. The recent graduate of Maple Heights High School in Maple Heights, Ohio became involved with FEA, an organization whose goal is […]

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Chaza Banda is Jumping Through Hoops to Get the Education She Deserves

Monday, August 12th, 2013 by Charlie Butts
Chaza Banda is Jumping Through Hoops to Get the Education She Deserves

After years of uncertainty, Chaza Banda’s lifelong dream to go to college is finally materializing.  Chaza’s father, an international student from Zambia sent for her in 2005.  Just nine months later he died, long before he could complete the process that would make the Banda’s permanent residents of the states. “Since that process was never […]

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Craig Lewis, co-founder of Sprav, the smart water meter conserving water and energy

Friday, August 2nd, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
Craig Lewis, co-founder of Sprav, the smart water meter conserving water and energy

Craig Lewis  is one of the inventors of Sprav, a smart water meter that allows users to determine, in real time, shower water and energy usage.  Based on these elements, shower costs are calculated and become instantly available for users. Because the young inventor’s device uses a Bluetooth module, users are able to upload their […]

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Teens Spearhead Movement to Lower Voting Age, score victory

Friday, August 2nd, 2013 by Jordan Doll
Teens Spearhead Movement to Lower Voting Age, score victory

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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Alexandra Brodsky to Yale: “Take sexual violence seriously”

Saturday, July 20th, 2013 by Jordan Doll
Alexandra Brodsky to Yale: “Take sexual violence seriously”

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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Eesha Khare: revolutionizing how we charge and use mobile devices

Saturday, July 20th, 2013 by Raluca Besliu

California native and eighteen-year-old Eesha Khare invented a super-capacitor, which acts as an energy storage and transfer device. The super-capacitor could revolutionize the way we charge and use mobile devices. Eesha’s device can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared to the 1,000 cycles of conventional rechargeable batteries. While so far, her device has only been […]

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Two Young Activists are Arrested. Intentionally. “As Youth, Our Leadership Will be Crucial”–

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 by Jordan Doll
Two Young Activists are Arrested. Intentionally. “As Youth, Our Leadership Will be Crucial”–

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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19-year-old Laura Deming funds anti-aging research

Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013 by Raluca Besliu
19-year-old Laura Deming funds anti-aging research

Laura Deming, originally from New Zealand, first become interested in aging when she was 8-years-old and learned about death. She recalls: “When I was eight, my mom told me about death and I couldn’t stop crying for days. What a tragedy! Life is incredible, but death is inevitable. I already knew biology was fantastic fun. […]

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