I have always thought about how I can change the world by starting small. I want to impact the world positively through the minds of our future, children. I have been performing and acting since the age of 2. I have grown to love it so much that I am continuing it in college and … Read moreChange the World By Starting Small
Working with children has always been something that I found crazy, partially because I liked it so much and partially because how could I possibly? The first time a group of kids were plopped in front of me was at Girl Scout camp, when I was a volunteer counselor. It was, well, insane. The girls … Read moreListen and Learn and Understand What Everyone Else Has to Say
I’ve been scratched, bitten, spit on, screamed at, and peed on by several kids with special needs. They are still my favorite people on earth. Growing up, there were many times I felt embarrassed of my younger brother with autism, who drooled all over his shirts and sang too loudly in public places. As I … Read moreLoving My Beautiful Friends with Special Needs
What can I do? As soon as I put the book down, I knew I had to do something. Kisses from Katie, a book describing one college freshman journey of moving to Uganda and starting a nonprofit, captivated my attention from the time I picked it up to the time I finished it. My sheltered … Read morePassion to Serve
There are three doors that slide open with jerks, like zippers on thrift store jackets, revealing book displays and yellow circulation pencils. Since elementary school, I’ve entered the doors to my local city’s public library countless times. Growing up, I never saw my parents reading. As first-generation immigrants, they said they didn’t have time. But … Read moreLibraries Represent an Open Community
It was 2003 when I was finally placed in a stable home. My biological mother was young, unable to care for a child, and spent her life in and out of prison struggling with addiction, so it wasn’t unusual for me to be tossed from one person to another before I met my forever mom. … Read moreEliminating the Gap Between Hearing and Deaf Community
For the past few years, I have found great joy in helping the special needs students at my school. One of my friends has a form of palsy, and uses a wheelchair to move. A lot of the other students will not talk to him; his speech is difficult to understand at times and his … Read moreMore Opportunities to Interact and Collaborate for Children with Special Needs
It’s a scene I’ve been a part of countless times: I’m tutoring a young girl – Mariam – after school on Chicago’s South Side. When she needs a break, we read a graphic novel about a caveman family. She reads the pages on the left, while I read the pages on the right. When we … Read moreLeave a Legacy for Children
Raising a child to be a citizen is an immense challenge. A citizen is someone who has a desire to understand the world, and a commitment to improving it. The global problems of today can seem so large that individuals feel their actions would be meaningless. This apathy cannot be an option forever. Without a … Read moreRaising a Child to be a Citizen
Children hopscotch in front of a crime scene and play tag by a memorial; our children deserve to reach their goals and have their name plastered on billboards rather than obituaries. Follow me home to Santa Rita and you will find the neighborhood with the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the county, the block central to … Read moreThe Children of Santa Rita Need Role Models