Teens Can Change the World

creativecommons.org/by John LeGear

We teenagers often think that we aren’t capable of making a change in the world, but that is where we are wrong. Teenagers’ actions can make a difference on a global scale.

I have personally witnessed the importance of community service in making a difference in the world: Three summers ago I went to Thailand for a community service trip and saw first-hand the poverty there and also saw what teenagers are doing to help those in need. While I was in Thailand, I helped build a house for a homeless woman, I cooked food for the poor and delivered the hot lunches to the villagers in person, and I taught Thai children English as well as how to swim. Of course, not every teen is able to travel to Thailand to help the less fortunate there, but everyone can make a difference staying right where they are.

In 2005 Matthew Cortland and Tina Liu, both juniors at Cherokee High School in Marlton, N.J., founded Students Together for Autism Research (S.TA.R.). They began the organization by raising money in a small group and walking in an autism fund-raiser, but the club soon blossomed into S.T.A.R. The group encourages students to raise awareness about autism and to create clubs in their own school so that those, in turn, can raise money for the cause. This club works through volunteering and community service. These two teenagers are an example of what we can do to change the world if we have a passion and a plan.

Even if you start small, as long as you are aimed at having a positive impact in your local community and across the globe, the small steps can take you very far, as in the case of Kimmie Weeks. Weeks was born in 1981 in Liberia, where he has seen human suffering, war and unnecessary deaths his whole life. When he turned 14, he began to work to minimize poverty and human suffering in his country and surrounding areas. He has led organizations that have lobbied to disarm more than 20,000 child soldiers, provided education to thousands of students and provided health care and other supplies to students. He saw tragedies around him and decided that he wanted to make a difference in the world—and then he went about making real changes.

Whether you are fighting for the right of speech or raising awareness about an illness, find your passion and make a difference. Teenagers have the potential to be some of the most powerful people in our world today, so stop wasting time thinking, just do it!