United States

• Divine and his teammates, Deandra, Jamaal and Fernando, created Team Revolution, a youth center that provides recreation and leadership opportunities for teens in Brooklyn. Most recently, Divine has been named by Polo Jeans as one of 21 men and women who are “redefining volunteerism.” This year, Team Revolution performed in a post-game Super Bowl concert.

• Jessica, Rachel and Ngiste launched Kids Who K.A.R.E: Kids Autism Research Effort, to raise money for autism research and publish a series of illustrated educational children’s books about mental disabilities, which they distribute to local schools and libraries. They have also designed a kid-friendly website to dispel stereotypes about young people with autism.

• Determined to change the attitude that space exploration is not for girls, Becca decided to launch No Boundaries, a space camp that exposes girls to math and science. The camp features fun science-related experiments and crafts geared toward young children. The camp includes Astrotots, for young girls; Mad Female Scientist, geared towards learning about experiments; and Love Bugs, designed to teach children about beneficial bugs.

• Students United for Racial Equity, started by Nina, has created a syllabus-based 14-session seminar on race issues for high school students, demonstrated first in five California schools as a pilot for national replication.

India

• Vipin, Nancy, and Alankaar have launched the School-based Intervention for Preventing and Addressing Child Sexual Abuse (SIPACSA) to address the 'untouchable' issue of child sexual abuse in families in Chennai, India. Through school workshops they provide awareness, break myths, and above all, tell children that if they have been abused, it is not their fault. After a year of work, they now have a waitlist of schools in Chennai seeking their program. They are passionate and strongly committed, and bring a deep understanding to what they do.

• Of the myriad organizations working with street children in Bombay, India, hardly any have been created or run by street kids themselves. Sameer and Rajesh, two former street kids, have formed an association called Pukaar, which provides a range of services to young street kids, from providing food and shelter to rights training to instruction on where to access vocational training and health services. In the last year, this network has enabled 50 youth to permanently move off the streets.

• Gerald, an adivasi from Assam-Nagaland border region in the northeast of India, is working to liberate adivasis from the stranglehold imposed on them by moneylenders to whom they have mortgaged their land. Gerald began Jivan Dan by investing his own meagre savings to pay off one moneylender, and then working with the adivasi family to help them use their land as a valuable resource. Through training adivasi youth, mentoring young farmers, and working with the adivasi community to proactively address their problems, Gerald is bringing hope where there is currently very little.

Mexico

• Confronted with a lack of nutritional options and jobs for young people, Uriel, Kimberly and Monserrat started JOMEC (Jóvenes Micro Emprendedores de Cocina), a cooking school and catering service to benefit young people and families alike in their neighborhood in Mexico City, Mexico.

• After years of making a name for themselves as artists, Jesús (Méxica) and Juan Carlos (Smiley) decided it was time to teach others. Together, they started RAPEM (Rap Pandillero Estilo Mexicano). Disguised as a school for rap, RAPEM is dedicated to giving young people across Mexico a safe, non-violent outlet to share their experiences, with the hopes of bringing together gangs and across territories and to change society’s perception of gang urban youth.