2024 MyImpact Challenge Virtual Fair

honored guests it is with great pleasure that I open the 2024 my impact challenge National citizenship fair this event is a testament to the dedication of young people around the country to the principles of Civic engagement leadership and the betterment of our communities over the course of this virtual Fair we will share testimonies from Partners past winners and give you the opportunity to hear from the 2024 my impact challenge winners my name is Rachel humph and I’m the senior director of Civic learning initiatives at the Bill of Rights Institute at the Bill of Rights Institute we teach Civics to see an America where we more perfectly realize the promise of Liberty and equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence this necessitates a civic education that empowers students to delve into The Narrative of our nation and actively exercise the duties of citizenship your teachers and communities help you do that every day we’re so grateful that they are doing that good work our approach is rooted in founding principles and Civic virtues shaping the American Republic in Collective Consciousness we recognize that the continued success of the American experiment in self-governance hinges on our Mastery of these principles and the consistent practice of these virtues in a world where the significance of civic education is becoming more apparent the mission of learning Civics becomes all the more vital it empowers us to become informed and active citizens who can effectively participate and better our communities but today we’re not just celebrating academic ability and knowledge we’re celebrating human creativity we’re celebrating the Innovative spirit that drives individuals like yourselves to think outside the box and find Creative Solutions to community issues creativity is about problem solving empathy and resilience it’s about seeing challenges as opportunities for growth and transformation each of our entrance through their cre of initiatives has demonstrated how Innovation can be a powerful force for positive change in our communities as a result of the leadership and creativity of these young people our schools and communities are not only healthier but more prosperous we hope their work will inspire others and serve as a Beacon of Hope for the other students I want to once again extend my heartfelt congratulations the dedication passion and creativity in these projects is truly commendable and I have no doubt they will continue to inspire others and make a profound impact on the world around us to know our rights and responsibilities we have to practice contributing thank you to all the entrance for their contributions and commitment to building a better future for us [Music] all hello I’m David Bob president and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute I’m honored to welcome all of you to the 2024 my impact challenge virtual fair

when we first launched my impact challenge Nationwide 3 years ago our goal was to create the science fair for civics I believe my impact challenge has become even more than that young people all across our nation are leading Civic engagement projects that strengthen their communities and Advance key constitutional principles like Liberty and equality as last year’s winner Caroline GA from Oregon told us my impact challenge helped her understand quote just how much founding principles and Civic virtues of the United States are really ingrained in my own values and beliefs end quote through my impact challenge students are also learning to thrive in Civil Society partnering with businesses Charities Community officials and their neighbors to solve local problems since the launch of my impact challenge students have engaged in their local communities to fill food banks offer disaster relief and training bring music education to low-income schools and so much more this year America’s young people delivered again we received a record number of project submissions from every corner of America and even from an overseas Department of Defense school we can’t wait to introduce you to some of our winners so you can hear their incredible stories you know there’s so much to talk today about all that divides us as a nation but my impact challenge is a powerful reminder of what brings us together America at its best is neighbor working alongside neighbor to solve problems strengthen their communities and live together more freely and justly through my impact challenge young people are applying their civic knowledge to help lead this work all across America you’ll hear their powerful stories today [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my name is m impuls and I believe that no person disability or not should be

discriminated against from resources or events however we see this happen in our world today when a person with an intellectual or physical disability is looked down upon or not allowed the same opportunities as others my goal and purpose is to raise awareness to how special every person is and to build relationships and memories of people with disabilities in order for me to do that I created the Pioneer passion project which is a carnival that offers resources and activities for people with intellectual or physical disabilities this event is extremely beneficial because every organization can be represented at one event in order to spread the word about available resources over the past 3 years we have physically served 1,0 people with intellectual or physical disabilities and have brought in 51 organizations with different resources we have many games and activities there such as three bounce houses mini golf a sensory table face painting di to the praying dog and so many more all these activities bring a smile to their faces and provide them with a special opportunity they don’t normally get while they off playing games with us their parents are off talking with different organizations and how it can impact their kids at the carnival um there were a lot of groups there um I remember in particular connecting with the handicap Camp rep which is a camp for special needs kiddos so I asked a lot of questions there if we hadn’t have gone to the carnival I would have never um known that that was an option a completely free event and it’s a fun afternoon um lots of stuff for the kids and the resources for parents to get connected as well yeah I saw and yeah that what I did had fun and that’s what I did the carnival the carnival people leave art Carnival having a fun day while also gaining resources from over 20 different organizations that they can be part of hi I’m s Charlie the founder of obla art speak art we teach workshops for bilingual education throughout Southern California bringing together art and public speaking English and Spanish and supporting lowincome Hispanic youth why is this so important because 10% of students Nationwide and 5 million students are learning English as a second language but don’t have a bilingual environment to learn Workshop by Workshop student by student aa art day is bridging that Gap when I started tutoring with a nonprofit in Santa Ana I realized that students learning English as a second language were underperforming and lacked confidence this realization inspired ired obla Arte I’ve spent the past 2 years developing and growing this Hands-On bilingual

program I started with Al Soul a title one school and taught 30 students on a weekly basis I’ve continued to teach there for the past two years and expanded to the Boys and Girls Club Mix Academy and OC Rescue Mission recruiting other students to join me thus far we’ve impacted over 450 students and delivered over 200 hours of in-class instruction and this is just the beginning not only did we notice our impact parents and teachers did too speaking Spanish validated students identity boosted their confidence improved their academic performance and provided a space where students can truly Thrive I realized that to really promote bilingual education I had to go beyond the classroom advocating for bilingual programming with the Santa Ana School Board we want to share this impact of our program by recommending to implement more bilingual programs obla art is a celebration of students diversity our students learn to express themselves through ART and speech while embracing their diverse backgrounds we’ve had the honor of having s Anda with us providing art classes um and communication building skills with our students um and one of the positive impacts that we’ve seen with our students that it provides the opportunity to practice Spanish also provides students that safe sense of um speaking their native language um it’s also buil a lot of confidence and creativity with our students as they are able to um talk about their art but also Express themselves creatively through their art through AAL art day I am working with the DED dedicated team to expand opportunities for Hispanic youth setting them up for future success within and Beyond the classroom oh what’s that you want to see what I’m reading well sure I have always loved everything about writing creation storytelling and more than that getting to know people through characters but I found is that most Journal and magazines don’t want young authors that their youth somehow impedes their creativity or worthiness for publication I wanted to change this my passion is for advocating for young marginalized voices in literature spaces and I do this through my organization Cade Cade comes from the thumel word story which is what I want teens to be able to build at the organization I started the Cade literary journal as a way for students to gain Community publication material and inspiration over on Instagram I heavily promoted everything and marketed myself and and my organization initially it was a little embarrassing but once I saw how many people came to submit to the journal and truly wanted to be part of

our mission I knew that there was something worthwhile happening in fact we have now garnered more than 750 downloads worldwide and submissions from 30 different countries in the meantime we have also developed a student ambassador program where ambassadors use their youth voices to impact the publishing industry we do this through advanced reader copy reviewing we have now acquired ARS from publishing houses so young readers and writers at our community have been able to directly impact the publishing industry with their voice additionally we have also created a community where young readers and writers can connect online in the future we hope to expand to more countries and regions bringing our mission to unify literature and diversify our community everywhere in order to do this for example we have a forthcoming children’s book on culture coming this January to help students learn about culture in the classroom ultimately we hope to encourage the Youth of our day now to impact their literary spaces and create literature that represents them and that they really want to read Smart City Sprints brings young minds together to solve real world problems in our community I’m renir co-founder of smart cities I’m Sergey Ren’s partner in this initiative our mission is to build a dedicated group of students committed to creating positive change and I’m Omar through immersive problem solving events we call Design Sprints teams address issues like Master natural disaster preparation diverse equity and inclusion and Civic engagement our first Sprint focused on storm water flooding a major concern for Houston student Innovations included AI drainage optimization flood prooof Urban architecture and storm surge awareness campaigns competitions that encourage students to think critically work collaboratively and Lead confidently as a recent sponsor of the design Sprint on flooding a virtual problem solving event the audience International School shows it not only emboldens its own students to explore their curiosity push boundaries next was our Dei Sprint partnering with rice University’s black Symposium we brainstormed technology tools youth programs and policy changes to drive social equity and we want to give her a platform in order to become an entrepreneur because she really does talk about her future and how she wants this to be what she’ll do for the rest of her life but she’s worried about not having had good resources that’s why you really to focus in on these certifications because she just needs to make sure that she’s able to network with individuals and grow and Branch out judges recognize winners but no prior experience is required to participate all you need is a drive the problem solve Equitable Solutions smart cities is free to join thanks to our multiple University and City partners and we even handle event Logistics so you can immerse in Innovation coming up this year we’ll collaborate with Community groups on Election access and financial literacy design science Sprints to engage students civically and economically we’ll also be working with the emerging Visionary programs by

credential to help young entrepreneurs turn their Ventures into forces for good our participants can’t wait to join the next Sprint the sky the limit when we unite our diverse perspectives dream big and dare to take part in shaping a brighter future sign up for our next design Sprint regarding vo voting equity growing up entrepreneurship has always been a passion of mine from my small lemonade stands in my backyard to my school Fair slime business to my jewelry shop on Etsy my startups have served as both a piggy bank filler and a tremendous learning experience expenses are a very real part of business each time I created a supply list and calculated the total of my products I wondered what about the kids who didn’t have the financial parental support I created a kids launch to be a safety net for all kids who have a passion to start their own business ventures breaking the economic barriers that stand in the way for so many of our youth that want to access entrepreneurship at kids launch we host camps and workshop events that teach kids how to start their own businesses our after school middle school Workshop Dives deep into our kids launch workbook curriculum that is summed up into five chapters brainstorming idea selection materials product pricing and marketing after completing the workbook students possess the skills to start their own business our Chiang troop event allows students to pitch their unique ideas to a panel of Judges letting the crowd choose a winner for the best pitch our biggest event is our two week long camp that is held in conjunction with the Santa Ana Community Center where kids launch funds three businesses the Slime jewelry and lemonade business where they sold all their products at a City Event the community reception has been overwhelmingly positive saw that theid kids were excited about what they were doing and their product and how invested they were because you’re you and your volunteers instilled that in in them and encourag them our goal for the 2024 2025 school year is to expand our two-e long program into neighboring cities and to make entrepreneurship accessible for every aspiring young business owner launching their business dreams into a reality hi I’m Alec the founder of impact Academy where we’re reimagining nonprofit marketing how by tapping into the untapped potential of teens like me my on demand platform links Tech ABY high schoolers with nonprofits that don’t have the staff or resources to manage their online content teens then get to log community service hours for Meaningful work they do on behalf of these organizations they Gain real world marketing experience while nonprofits expand Their audience reach attracting more volunteers and secure additional funding for their Worthy causes I’ve always had a knack for marketing and even started my own business affiliate Academy which gained thousands of subscribers who wanted to build their online brand when I started volunteering

for thinking Huts a nonprofit that uses 3D printing to build schools in Africa I learned that resources were Slim So creating Dynamic content for social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook was not their primary focus I soon realized that the best way for me to contribute would to be to apply the marketing skills I learned for business in support of the organization’s mission I developed a new strategy for thinking huts and then Drew from their Founders extensive library of news clips and Ted Talks to create compelling new short form videos that brought their story to life the result was incredible thinking Hut saw its view Skyrocket and engagement increased fivefold that’s when I knew I was on to something so I authored and published a practical guide book on nonprofit marketing and distributed it to other nonprofits to empower their teams another nonprofit that benefited from this new marketing strategy was the unal Foundation which is currently fundraising to build a primary school in Tanzania again through working with them we had a tremendous impact immediately increasing its online presence from zero to thousands of followers but I’m only one person I realize that if I trained other teams to apply marketing skills to nonprofits then we can dramatically scale our impact by tapping into the social media skills of the teenage population so I decided to harness the skills of other high school students equip them with my strategies and then enable them to do meaningful Comm community service supporting organizations that needed digital marketing help that’s how impact Academy was born by recruiting like-minded volunteers we are quickly growing as we continue to reimagine the landscape of OnDemand marketing for nonprofits this is just the beginning digital media is a powerful tool for social change and through impact Academy we harness its power for the collective good to continue to scale I’m currently developing an app that will match teen creators across the country and eventually even globally with nonprofits that would benefit from their digital marketing skills digital marketing Powers positive change and the possibilities are endless every like every share and every new volunteer brings us closer to a world where every nonprofit no matter its size has a voice that can be heard around the world if you believe in a future where this is possible then join us get involved spread the word and let’s empower the next generation of change makers together thank you for supporting impact Academy your engagement today shapes the impact of tomorrow [Music] last year people from Rapids Lake came to us and they had like museums where we could learn about Dakota in Native American culture we decided we could do a popup Museum so that kids in our school could learn a little more about it so there is a look Museum and there is a shield and then there is a tuck Museum something that was very apparent in town was that there is no safe place for

people to both learn how to skateboard and to skateboard so we decided that uh the logical thing to do would be build a skate park we get to go out and like teach these young children about how to help their communities and like prevent the habitat from being destroyed it’s like just really fun to like get these kids outdoors and help them learn more about what they’re learning in class I learned that some things can take a lot of work I’ve learned that this the size of the project doesn’t matter it’s how dedicated I am to what I’m doing what I learned is to be respectful to other people usually like we be in little clicks and like have our own little groups and not really even know about anybody else but it like pushes us to like Bond a lot and teamwork I think it has helped us to grow our conf I just think it’s helped build our personalities and maturity as a whole I think that it teaches people to be independent in like my future like I can maybe educate one day other kids on reptiles and how like the wetlands are disappearing I think it’s just it’s brought a huge positive wave into the community it’s helping me learn different things that will help me in the future and help impact me to like want to start my own program like this I learned that I can do stuff that I never MERS that I would be able to at NC our vision is that one day all young people will make positive contributions to society as part of their K12 education and graduate as civically responsible Global Citizens it is the passion creativity and innovation of young people that will make this world a better place for us all [Music] if shelter is a fundamental human right then why are 10,264 people in San Diego County without a permanent home my name is bra p and I’m the founder and CEO of pilt a student run 501c3 organization dedicated to eliminating housing insecurity I founded pilt in 2021 to rally and Empower K through 12 students because I believe in the power of my peers to be change makers pilt supports three distinct subgroups of unsheltered people either directly or in partnership with other organizations these groups are unsheltered adults runaway teens and unsheltered and transitional age Foster youth we collaborate with organizations like path stand up for kids and the YMCA to find Sustainable Solutions to homelessness student L projects at our partner schools provide those who are unsheltered and those who are transitioning to a permanent home home with items such as food clothing hygiene products and cleaning supplies through our Partnerships advocacy efforts and educational opportunities we’ve been able to make a

significant difference in San Diego County our efforts have been acknowledged and appreciated by nonprofit Executives teachers and administrators and student participants have found our activities and programs to be enriching and purposeful homelessness affects all of us not just those without a permanent home that’s why it’s important to come together as a society to assist those who are experiencing homelessness and to ensure that we all have a safe place to call home we are here with Braden Pape our third Prize winner from my impact challenge 2024 thank you so much for being here Braden thank you Mr Brickley for having me oh no thank you so why don’t you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your project yeah of course so uh like I said my name is Bren Pape I’m um a senior I graduated high school and I am the founder and CEO of a 501c3 unincorporated nonprofit association called pilt the longer version of the name is the path inter Scholastic leadership team and we’re currently partnered with 16 schools across San Diego County um who are interested in eliminating housing security as well as food insecurity that’s really cool so what inspired you to start your project in your work so originally I was working as a volunteer at path so um the reason why first of all the reason why it’s called pilt is it’s the path inter Scholastic leadership team so the first the P represent path and that’s kind of like the original um uh organization that we partnered with and um I was I think I was at the end of my freshman year and I was volunteering at dinner Ser for dinner service at path and basically path path’s clients needed a lot of items like deodorant masks Etc and they were asking uh me and the other volunteers but however we did not have the supplies to provide them with those items so um knowing that path was in a um deficit because of covid-19 I was like wait a minute I had prior experience helping the community and I think I can just you know collect items and donate um them to path but I knew I couldn’t do this alone so I was like you know what a great idea would be that if I uh partner with other schools and if I get gen Z together to help out to eliminate housing insecurity now path is one of California’s largest homeless service providers and they have a main like area throughout California so San Jose Los Angeles San Diego and um if they were if they had or since they were in a shortage that’s mean that or it means that they didn’t have the supplies that

they needed and they serve obviously since they are across California they serve a lot of um clients they serve a lot of people uh who were transitioning from uh living on the streets to into a permanent home and knowing that they did have a shortage uh they weren’t able obviously to help out those clients and it is very important because since it was especially after Co and Co has exacerbated um the homeless issue I was like okay there needs to be something that should be done to help path uh get the supplies that they need to uh provide to their clients and I kind of just got at first three schools so High School Helix shter High Mission Bay High School and scripts Ranch together just to do a few projects to help out uh with pats permited supporting housing sites and then um later we TR we transitioned into just 16 partner schools helping a a broad array of um nonprofits that’s really cool so what have you learned about citizenship as you’ve gone through this process so citizenship in a nutshell means that just helping being a good citizen helping those who need that help the most and I realize that in order for us to be successful the community needs to be successful as well and if the community is not successful then we as individuals will not be successful so I feel like that we have a moral obligation to help those who need that help the most it’s really cool so has anything really surprised you as you’ve gone through this work yes 100% there were a lot of things that surprised me you know just building the nonprofit and everything but I think as I was volunteering more and as I was helping out um the unsheltered population more I noticed that the main reason as to why many people become unsheltered in the first place and many people believe it’s just because they’re lazy or they’re drugs or whatever reason but it’s actually only a small percentage of those who are um suffering from drug abuse or Etc the main I would not say the main issue but a primary issue well same thing a primary issue would be housing prices and since California is one of the most expensive cities in California or in the US it’s less affordable housing definitely has a positive or has a negative correlation in terms of um the rates of unhoused so for example the less affordable housing the higher unhoused uh population and not only that I would also say unhoused youth as well I remember the last point in time count I believe there were around [Music] 1,118 I

believe um youth who were experiencing homelessness in San Diego County according to the last point in time count and it is very surprising because a study by The Chap and Hall uh University of Chicago showed that one in youth in the United States are experiencing homelessness and you don’t really like notice a youth who who is experiencing homelessness because you might think oh it’s just another kid with a backpack could be coming home from like school or whatnot but in reality they don’t have a permanent place to live so I think those two uh once again just understanding the main causes of homelessness and it’s actually not being um drug abuse or just La pure like laziness which is basically the stigma of those who are unhoused as well as um the fact that there are so many unhoused youth in the US those two are probably the most important or most surprising things I have learned throughout my time volunteering yeah so what advice would you give to other students who are interested in community service or who might want to apply to my impact challenge next year I would say apply not because because you want the money I would say appla because you are passionate in um just helping out the community serving the community and sharing your voice and your passion it’s really cool well thank you so much for being here today Braden anything else you want to say before we sign off uh no thank you for having me I really do appreciate it and I am very very very honored uh for being the third Prize winner yeah thank you so much for being with us today thank you at age 10 my grandma begged for food on the streets my mom learned the ABCs of English and I started to learn how to research education has always played a huge role in my life yet when I wanted to learn research and started my journey on it I was barred from it unable to find an appropriate program research plays an integral role in education no student should be borred from learning it because of their age race gender or financial background hence I founded research to empower a student-led nonprofit teaching young students how to research through cost-free classes and online resources in my local community we worked closely with the saset school district saset library and new energy education center at the national and Global levels we received strong support and sponsorship from the National Youth Leadership Council Davidson Institute Google Microsoft and more through workshops podcasts videos invited talks and Publications we have reached out to students and Educators in over 140 countries including those from our local

community these initiatives have gained visibility from CBS News news2 and the points of light organization we’ve received many heartfelt testimonials from students and endorsements from experts and Educators this is something that makes me feel a profound sense of potential in research to empower because we see the tangible impact of our work every day moving forward I’m confident that research to empower will promote new ideas and fresh energy to sustain our efforts in preserving Equity Justice and courage in my community and Beyond and we are here with Grace Lou Who won our second prize this year for $5,000 Grace thank you so much for being here thank you I’m really honored to be here and thank you so much for awarding me this prize thank you and could you start by just telling us a little bit about yourself and your project yes of course so as you introduced me um I’m Grace Lou I’m from soset high school in Long Island New York and my project is called research to empower our mission is to inspire support and Empower Young students with the ability to access and do research in a fun and engaging way and we specifically Target um under represented students especially um girls first generation students people of color immigrants and students from low-income households that’s really awesome so what inspired you to get started with this work I always love this question because it’s very rooted in my personal experiences so growing up I’ve always been taught that um education is really really important and truly has the ability to change lives because it changed my grandmother’s life it changed my mom’s life and then now it’s been changing my life so I’ve always just immensely valued education and in middle school when I started having an interest in wanting to do research I realized that there’s a huge barrier where typically research programs are exclusively for high school students or or under undergraduate students um and they typically have exorbitant costs so I saw this need and after self-learning research and being blessed to be selected into a free research program um I really reflected back on my experiences and saw that um so many of my peers around me um my friends and then even my younger sister um want to do research and then um oftentimes don’t know where to start they have a great idea um but are often barred because of those high costs so I started research to empower to address this need that’s really cool so throughout your project and through my impact challenge what have you learned about citizenship and being a good citizen through this process I’ve learned so much about citizenship I would say the

biggest thing that I learned is truly that being a good citizen um involves taking concrete actions to address the injustices that we see because there are so many issues around the world these days and a lot of the times I think being a good citizen being an active and engaged citizen um in and embodying those Civic virtues that are so important is really taking action and just being down and and doing things to um help contribute to society and work towards bettering it and I think often times that starts off with um us doing projects like the project for my that impact challenge that I submitted to um it’s really starting off with trying to give back to um our local communities um because I think having a local community can really it has really helped me so much and has helped me grow and being able to give back to it and and engage with it um and engage engage in service um has really redefine what citizenship has meant for me that’s really cool so have you had any big surprises as you’ve gone through your work anything that’s that’s kind of caught you off guard and made you think about you know what you’re doing yeah absolutely I would say there’s two main surprises that I’ve kind of had the first one kind of um snuck up on me almost when I was like reflecting on this whole experience and then I was like wow I I I never realized that or I never really noticed it until now um and that’s really kind of a huge like personality change I would say um in myself when working on this project because when I was younger um I would say like in elementary school and even in like the beginning of middle school before I started this project um I was always this super timid um lacked confidence and this kind of like pushover person um who really didn’t like speak up a lot and was just overall not a very confident person um and then after doing this project and then kind of pushing myself outside of my comfort zone um taking on more like speaking opportunities things like that um I’ve become much more confident in myself and able to speak up on the issues that I care so much about because I think that’s such an important thing and then I just can’t believe that such a huge change has happened in my personality so I would say that’s the first thing and then the second thing um is definitely something that’s less um that I was it was more so kind of um my expectations being um completely changed or um I I would say it was more so I I expected that um going into this project I would be really doing this completely on my own um I did not expect to receive support or I would I expected that most people would just be like oh she’s just doing her thing and just not really care

about what I’m doing but what really surprised me was the amount of support and encouragement that I received from so many people um and just the amount of love and care that people have shown me has just further reaffirms my belief in that this issue is something that is so so important and it’s not just something that I care about it’s also something that so many people around me care about um like one particular example that happened pretty recently um was I attended the um National youth leadership coun uh the national youth leadership councils and ual um conference and then I presented a workshop there um on Research to empower what we offer things like that and then I was really surprised to have the whole Workshop room just filled with people some people even we ran out of chairs so some people have been standing in the back um and kind of like taking notes and that experience was really I was completely shocked for the better because I genuinely did not expect that many people would care so much about um what I wanted to talk about and it was just so such a beautiful and and honoring experience for me that’s great and and I know we we thought your project was very unique too because it’s something that we haven’t seen a lot um and we see a lot of projects so so going on Research like that was a really really interesting way to do it and thank you so much for that um as we wrap up what advice would you give to other students who are interested in community service or maybe looking to apply to my impact challenge next year I I love the question um and I would say that really focusing on tying in your passion and your interest from the bottom of your heart what um kind of might keep you up at night or what you would be willing to spend countless hours on tying that um kind of desire to do action with some real world’s need um and seeing it from the perspective of what that real world need and kind of really defining that and highlighting that in your application um and your essay I think would make it a whole lot stronger um and then that also kind of ties into um thinking about what specific Civic principles um their project might um exemplify um for example I really did a lot of like brainstorming and looking after I read through the Civic principles like document um I really just sat down and thought like deeply about what very very specific aspects of my project kind of exemplified those Civic principles um and what kind of need I address and what kind of impact I’ve generated so truly just tying in um your passion letting that shine through um being unafraid to be bold and be confident in your achievements because the fact that

you’re submitting um and I’m addressing this to um everyone’s who’s uh submitting to the Mind impact challenge um the fact that you have already um done a project and you’re ready to show the world um the impact that you have generated it’s already so so commendable and I’m sure that along the way of writing your application writing your essay um you’ll learn a lot like I have and learn not only more about your project um and let that shine through in your reflection but also um just overall let your interests and passions shine through well thank you so much for being with us today is there anything else you’d like to say before before we sign off I would just like to again to the students who are submitting for the Mind impact challenge next year um I would like to like commend them again for um the amazing work that you’ve done and of course congratulate um the other winners of this year’s challenge I just took a look through um at the work that they’ve done and it’s just truly incredible I’m so happy to see um the amazing work that everyone’s been doing and thank you again to um the Bill of Rights Institute for allowing me the opportunity to talk about um my experiences in Project thank you so much for being with us today the United States has one of the largest prison populations in the world in fact every year over 650,000 re-entrance are leased into society and our prison population today remains at about 19 million because of their Criminal histories re-entrance face immense struggle when looking for jobs however our solution makes re-entry job seeking incredibly easy our platform outside connection places over 650 job opportunities from fair chance hirers in one place with positions vetted by the second chance business Coalition we can ensure that re-entrance finds secure and welcoming jobs we’ve had immense success already having presence in 31 cities in 17 States we’ve also been adopted by the United States Department of Justice from this we’ve provided over 10,000 re-entrance with job access after reaching this Milestone last year and hosting a re-entry job Workshop we were featured in the Associated Press we’ve also been previously involved with the SHA being named a Prudential emerging visionary’s early entry standout just a few few months ago right and we are here with Sebastian tan our uh first prize winner for my impact challenge thank you so much for being here Sebastian and I wonder if you to start by uh telling us a little bit about yourself and about your project sure so my name is Sebastian I’m a

rising senior I’m in high school and for my project I worked on Civic engagement with people coming out of prison um my projects is called outside connection it focuses on helping them find jobs that’s really cool so what inspired you to start your work yeah so most of the inspiration came from working in my family’s Bakery growing up um I grew up working with a lot of individuals who came out of prison and our family bakery was sort of um like a first job for those individuals to find work um so I’ve gotten to know them pretty well and understand some of the problems that they face in society um and I created my project as sort of a solution to that uh so yeah it’s really cool so what do you think you’ve learned about citizenship through starting your project yeah so my project really revolves around Civic engagement and citizenship especially for people that are marginalized um so I began to learn a lot more about some of the struggles that a lot of different groups face so individuals coming out of prison individuals that have drug issues or face all sorts of problems that might lead them to prison um and then as they come out of prison uh the issues that they might have finding employment or reintegration into society uh so I learned about I learned about this issue from like a multifaceted uh point of view really cool so has anything really surprised you as you you’ve gone through this work what you know any any big you know things that have changed the way you think yeah um think in the past few weeks that I’ve been working on this and growing my project even further um it’s been really interesting to me how um motivated people are to get involved um uh so in the past few weeks I had a lot of recruitment going for my project trying to get more people involved and we had hundreds of people apply um so it was really cool seeing that and really interesting that a lot of people are interested so we’ve added a lot more people to our team and we’ve been able to gr a lot more that’s really amazing so what advice would you give to other students who are interested in community service or specifically interested in applying to my impact challenge next year um yeah I think really the the goal you should have is to create an impact and create one that’s as large as possible um but also be really passionate about what you’re doing and find motivation in what you’re doing um I think it first comes with just solving a problem that happens to imp you or those around you um and then scaling it to a point where you’re getting your community involved getting people you know involved and where you’re helping the people that really need help where you live and in larger places too that’s really cool oh anything else you’d like to say before we sign off today uh yeah I think this was just a really cool experience for me um I’ve

been working on my project for quite a while but I found it pretty easy I filled out the application for this this uh competition pretty quickly um but I I had a lot of work that i’ done previously that it was pretty easy to communicate through this application process uh so that definitely I think helped me um because I’d done a lot of the work beforehand um but it was a great really great opportunity to both get funding and some recognition for some of the Civic work that I’ve done well Sebastian thank you so much for being here today it was really wonderful having you yeah thanks for having me my name is Caroline and I am the grand prize winner of the 2023 my impact challenge my project is called the world in us and we are a nonprofit seeking to eliminate cultural ignorance and cultivate global citizenship through youth for youth education I am incredibly excited to congratulate you as the winners of the 2024 my impact challenge the Philip Arts Institute is an amazing organization and this is a truly powerful and empowering community that you are now a part of it’s been an incredible honor of mine to be a member of this community and to welcome you all into it now hello my name is Anna kungle I’m a junior at the Seven Hill School in Cincinnati Ohio and the founder of s the student Alliance for immigrants and refugees after volunteering with local immigrant and Refugee support agencies and observing a lack of student involvement I founded s in order to help bridge the gap between nonprofits and students Sarah operates around three distinct spheres of impact education community and awareness I’ve compiled some photos and videos to help you get a better understanding of Sarah’s impact thank you [Music]

and we’re here with Anna kungle the grand prize winner of the 2024 my impact challenge thank you so much for being here today Anna thank you um so I guess if we just start tell us a little bit about yourself and about your your project yeah so um my name is Anna kungl I’m from Cincinnati Ohio I’m a rising senior at the Seven Hill School um I am a second generation immigrant so my mom is from England but her family came through Czechoslovakia so there’s a long history of immigration in my family coming from Czech Slovakia to the uh UK to the US so um that’s sort of been the Genesis of my interest in Immigration um and I decided to um explore for immigration in my family I mean immigration in my community Cincinnati um you wouldn’t think of it as a city that draws a lot of immigrants but we really do so um that’s I decided to explore immigration in my city and I noticed that there was a lack of student involvement so I wanted to find a way to kind of bridge that Gap and make students feel comfortable to engage with immigrant communities around Cincinnati so I found it there that’s wonderful so you might have answered this a little B but so what inspired you to actually start your project when when when did you decide that it’s time to actually go do something yeah no of course so um I’ve volunteered for this lovely organization um here in Cincinnati um called heartfelt tidbits um and I was working with their virtual buddies program and then I was coming in person working with the it’s an immigrant and Refugee Support Agency here in Cincinnati to clarify and um I was working with their just like youth immigrants especially here in Cincinnati and I found was really challenging to kind of get other youth to get involved I would talk to Cheryl the founder of heartfelt Tippets and she would always be like oh it’s so hard to get kids to come and volunteer with us so I really wanted to kind of way a way to make people feel comfortable coming to this community and um coming to volunteer because it can be intimidating especially when you know there’s going to be cultural barriers or language barriers so um that was that was really the inspiration was kind of seeing the lack of involvement and wanting a way to help out cherl wanting a way to help out the immigrants here in Cincinnati that’s really cool so what what would you say you’ve learned about citizenship through all of this yeah so I obviously I was born here in the United States um so I was born into my responsibility as a citizen and I have grown up knowing what my responsibility as a citizen is and I think it’s been really fascinating to watch other people kind of adopt that role as a citizen and American citizen whereas one it was one I was born into and I kind of like grew up loving the United States and I grew up knowing the bill of rights and I grew up knowing um you know what it means to be an American citizen I’m watching people learn what it means to be an American citizen and helping them in that process and I think that’s really powerful to um see how citizenship isn’t something that you just have to be born into but something that you can grow and um become as well it’s really cool so

has some anything really surprised you as you’ve been doing all this work yeah I think it’s really surprising how many kids are so interested in participating with the Immigrant community in Cincinnati you know just how hard I found it to uh initially to get kids um involved you know so many of us um are born from immigrants or we have immigrant grandparents or we are immigrants ourselves and I think it’s really powerful it’s really it’s a great source of connection across people across cultures across um across everything so I think you know it’s been surprising how kind of open people are to helping out and how we can you know form connections so you know I could be from my family is from you know the UK and Czech Slovakia but I have friends whose parents are from Mexico and friends from Guatemala and we’ve got this source of shared connection which I think is really powerful even though we’re yeah that’s incredible so what what advice would you give to other students who are interested in community service or who specifically are looking to apply for my impact challenge next year yeah of course I think if you’re looking to do it you have passion make sure you’re going into an issue that you really care about because it gets really challenging along the way and I think that if you don’t have passion and you don’t have Drive you’re going to it’s it’s going to become really challenging but if you have passion you have drive for the topic you’re working on you’re going to be able to push through it and I think the other thing is to have tenacity um there are so many times where I reach out to people so many times and it still happens to this day you reach out to people you don’t get anything back and it can be really disheartening if you have tenacity and you have kind of the courage to keep going like it will pay off I think that’s really powerful that’s very cool well thank you so much for being here today congratulations again on your win thank you so much I really appreciate congratulations to all of our 2024 winners this was our biggest year ever and we’re looking forward to the 2025 contest applications open September 11th and they’ll close in May so get ready start preparing your essays your project reports your documentation and we would love to see you in September