I enjoy drawing, reading, baking, building things, and spending time with my family and friends.
I remember that when I was in elementary school, art classes were some of the most widely anticipated and exciting events of every year. My classmates and I would count down the days until every session, excited to take a break from normal class work and express our creativity. However, art class only came around about once every three months since the only times we would receive lessons were when particularly brave parent volunteers decided to sacrifice their time (and sanity) to lead a group of over-enthusiastic nine-year-olds through a premade art project. Because of Nevada’s lack of funding for the arts, professionally taught art classes are practically nonexistent in almost all of the state’s public elementary and middle schools. However, given the massive body of data explaining how drawing can have profound effects on children’s mental health, creativity, cognitive development, and motor skills, art classes are a necessity. As it’s unrealistic to expect the government to suddenly pump the vast amount of money to the art budget needed to hire and sustain permanent art teachers for Nevada elementary and middle schools, my project aims to set up an alternative option, to create a system where high school student volunteers teach elementary school students a cohesive art curriculum instead. I am developing a series of short presentations with a set of accompanying art projects to explain art’s importance to world history and culture. I am currently presenting these to elementary school classes, and am currently working to recruit more high school student volunteers to teach more classes. By establishing this system, younger students will get to learn about the importance of art and can reap all the benefits of practicing art regularly, while the older student volunteers can develop their presentational skills and gain teaching experience. You can learn more about my project on my website, thepandoproject.org
Go birding, read, play my trumpet.
Brief Ambassador Project Summary (please include your inspiration for this project, and a link to your website if applicable): Ever since I was a young child, I have always been interested in wildlife and biology, especially in birds. I love being outdoors and in the field. Every weekend, I would go on birding walks with my parents, keeping track of every new species I observed and eagerly anticipating what new species I would see. Over the years, observing birds has given me a keen appreciation of how important habitat is for the health of avian populations. Living on the Pacific Flyway, one of the major bird migration routes of North America has also impressed on me the importance of habitat for not just resident bird populations, but for those that are migrating through. Sadly, nationwide and worldwide, wildlife habitats are in peril. Landmark treaties like the Endangered Species Act help to mitigate habitat loss on a large scale, but on a local level, especially in cities, urban sprawl and the proliferation of the concrete jungle means that urban wildlife populations are under threat. Also, there is a lack of knowledge among the public, thwarting their ability to help even if they are willing to do so. Plants and trees in cities are often non-native decorative plants that offer little by way of food or shelter to native fauna.
My goal is to “think big” and develop a grassroots program to educate, enable and empower the public to reverse the trend of habitat loss in cities. Backyard by backyard, we can fight back by “going native.” My community service venture of working with individuals, nurseries and garden centers, schools, and local government to encourage and enable the use of native plants in streets, backyards and gardens will allow me to not only give back to the community but to all the living things that have given me so much joy over the years.
Some of the things I enjoy doing in my free time are reading, playing chess riding my bike, running, and playing the guitar (a little bit badly) with friends and families.
Brief Ambassador Project Summary (please include your inspiration for this project, and a link to your website if applicable):
I love observing the natural world, whether I am on adventurous hikes, or simply birdwatching in my backyard. I enjoy cross country, track, painting, taekwondo, pool and spending time with my friends.
Most people spend about 75% of their time indoors. Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. Pollutant concentration in the indoor air s 3-5 times and sometimes even 100 times higher than outdoor air. Every year 4.3 million people die due to poor indoor air quality (IAQ), this is around 11,780 people every day or 490 people every hour. Yet, IAQ is one of the most ignored problems in the world. The goal of my project is to not only create awareness but also to provide simple do it yourself solutions based on research. Implementation of these solutions will make a material difference to the health and productivity of people.
Everyone will benefit from this project but especially those who are the most vulnerable to the impact of indoor air quality: pregnant women, infants and young babies, lower income segment and senior citizens. This target segment is impacted the most by poor IAQ and if they are aware of the problems and simple solutions we can prevent a lot of health and productivity related issues and help those dealing with these issues lead a better quality of life.
What do you like to do in your free time? Play the violin, go camping with Boy Scouts, participate in Model United Nations conferences, compete in speech competitions, and playing with my two dogs, Snowy and Coco .
After watching the documentary, “Motel Kids of Orange County”, my eyes were opened to the hardships that homeless children and their families experienced. Many children were forced to live in a small motel room, where they played in the motel parking lot, searched for food from dumpsters, and moved from motel to motel monthly. This film inspired me to reach out to make an impact in my community. Due to my extensive interest in government and civics, I wrote a book for young children titled “Your Rights”, explaining the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights. I worked with a summer camp and a homeless shelter to teach civics education to the shelter children ages from 5 to 18 and assessed the outcome. The results were promising and offered some insight into the status of the children’s civics knowledge. There was a significant difference in children's pre- and post-test on their knowledge of Bill of Rights. The result made me realized how little civics education exposure shelter children received as children's knowledge of Bill of Rights improved from 38% to 67%. The result also proved that as young as 5 years old, children can grasp the basic concepts and improve.
My work shed some light on shelter children's civics education and further motivated me to expand my work to reach more children in need. I sincerely believe the civics education should start as early as possible! Since moving to North California and joining the Ambassador program, I set my goal to translate the Bill of Rights book into 4 languages, write a series of books regarding civics education, develop an age-appropriate curriculum, and implement the curriculum in family shelters. After the curriculum is fully developed and tested, I plan to send my books to various places in need and distribute my curriculum as an accessible resource. I believe that civics should be universal information, which must be accessible to everyone in the USA. I am excited to work with Davidson to make a difference!
What do you like to do in your free time?:During my free time, you can find me watching various horror films, enjoying sci-fi shows, showing off my skills in Mariokart, and laughing it up with my friends and family.
My project is Aphelion, a student-founded non-profit organization. Aphelion was created back in 2016 when a group of students wanted to find a way to use their artistic talents to make a difference.
Every individual deserves access to education and the opportunity to achieve great things. Unfortunately, education may only be a dream for many. Aphelion works to grant the opportunity to pursue education to kids all over the world. Currently, Aphelion is supporting the education of two girls in Kenya named Regina and Beatrice with help from an organization entitled the Maasai Girls Education Fund (MGEF). Without our help, these girls may be married off at a young age, expected to care for the home rather than pursue their passion for education. By giving these girls the chance to learn and grow, they can bring back knowledge in nursing, agriculture, or even engineering to help their tribe. There is a quote from Brigham Young that states, “… You educate a woman; you educate a generation.” These girls will be able to pass their teachings on to their children, fueling them with the same passion for learning.
My goal is to take Aphelion to the next level, working more within our community to create change and expanding our reach. Creating awareness and educating others on the importance of education is as important as raising funds. You can learn more about the organization and our previous events on weareaphelion.org.
I like to read, play piano, and watch anime as well as Youtube. I also really enjoy indoor rock climbing.
Everybody has something they feel passionate about. Often, people want to help spread awareness about or do something to help that topic. But one question people, myself included, keep stumbling upon is: How? How can I truly make a difference? How do I start?
That is why I started my project, Activism for Youths. Activism for Youths aims to help elementary and middle-school students create and accomplish activism projects. By breaking down the process of activism into smaller steps and guiding students through those steps, I will help many students accomplish their goals and truly make a difference.
What do you like to do in your free time? Hike, ski, play squash (racquet sport), read, debate, and play Catan.
I spend most of my time with my school work and debating (public forum, parliamentary, and model congress). I also coach and run multiple middle school debate teams at different schools and organizations. In my free time I like to hang out with my friends and family, read, exercise (soccer and running), and listen to/play music (piano and guitar).
My project, Initiate Debate, is intended to help teach and mentor middle school students through debate. I believe this title encompasses the essence of what my program would accomplish. On a basic level the program aims to start new debate programs. On a deeper level it is so much more than that, aiming to initiate civil discussion between people by broadening the debate community to include people from all different backgrounds. It is important for young people to be taught to solve conflicts respectfully and to effectively advocate for themselves and their beliefs, while engaging in the world around them. Debate has allowed me to do all of these things, and I want to help pass those skills on to other young people who are not as fortunate as I am.
Debate has so many valuable lessons that I have learned personally. It helps build confidence and verbal agility while working on communication skills one on one, in group settings and with public speaking. My work coaching debate was very formative for me and had a great impact on my students. Initiate Debate would be about taking the incredible opportunity I had coaching and offer it to more high school students so that even more middle schools will have the benefit of debate programs. Then, Initiate Debate helps to connect these school debate programs with the tournament circuit. We want to help raise a generation that values productive discussion over silence and steps up to take leadership roles when they can help initiate change.
In my free time, I like to play basketball and read science and historical fiction books. I also enjoy watching sports, especially football and basketball and rooting for my Bay Area teams!
I am extremely fascinated with the study of neurosciences, especially the brain anatomy and neurological disorders and have been involved in research in some of these areas.
My Biology teacher introduced me to a neuroscience club and it was there I discovered a seemingly simple looking organ - the brain - which controls our ability to see, hear, feel, learn, move, and so much more. I held a small sheep brain in my hands and it was hard to fathom that this tiny piece grey and white matter is responsible for it all. I continued to learn more about the brain and neurosciences in general by listening to specialists and reading up on the research.
In this journey, I have learnt many fascinating yet surprising facts about the teenage brain. Brain development in these formative years makes teens self-conscious and subject to peer influences. Under peer-influence teens may take risks and may like to try out alcohol or drugs. But what is the impact of these drugs on our brains?
My project is very specifically, on the teenage brain. Adolescence is a time of significant growth and development inside the teenage brain. Because the prefrontal cortex is still developing, teenagers rely on amygdala (center for emotions) to make decisions and solve problems more than adults do. While the prefrontal cortex (area for planning, decision making and moderating social behavior) is still not fully developed, teenagers undergo major changes in their limbic system (the area of the brain that controls emotions). Doctors now believe that this difference in timing of development of the prefrontal cortex causes the risk-taking and impulsive behaviors which are rather common among teenagers. Teenagers tend to make decisions based on their emotions rather than logic.
It is extremely important to understand how brain development and growth impacts the way teens behave and act. It will help us teenagers to be self-aware and understanding which can help us navigate society with positive interactions. Understanding our brains is important for all adolescents and I want to use this opportunity and share the research about Our developing Teen Brains.
My website will be coming soon and will contain information and research material related to how the developing brain in teenagers causes these changes in behavior. I am also happy to share my presentations at schools and teen organizations. Please feel free to email me at OurTeenBrains@gmail.com.
What do you like to do in your free time?: I like to play competitive tennis and train in my Black Belt class. I also enjoy singing, play chess with my dad, read books and news articles.
Brief Ambassador Project Summary (please include your inspiration for this project, and a link to your website if applicable:
I have always loved helping people. When I went to visit some rural villages of India over the years, I have seen the thirst for good education in the eyes of the underprivileged kids, and observed the scarcity for learning resources in these areas.
My project (“CAUSE”) intends to create awareness among kids in the local schools and communities here to address these educational challenges and the scarcity of learning resources. “CAUSE” aims to collect donations in the form of learning resources such as new or used books, new or used gadgets like iPads and calculators and other learning material like magazines; and participate in a uniquely designed “Pen Pal” program connecting each underprivileged kid with a pen pal from a middle or high school in our local community to correspond with, ask questions, seek guidance from, and more importantly see a friend in them. Please visit us at www.cause.community.
In my free time, I like to read and write. My favorite book is the Count of Monte Cristo though I also like the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings series. I like writing realistic fiction but I can write in most genres. I also like watching movies and tv shows and playing board games with my family.
I am working with my brother, Sayan, to create a quarterly magazine targeted at 13-18 year olds and created by kids of the same age group. It will feature news, sports, and pop culture articles as well as restaurant reviews and a list of local events. It will also contain writing and artwork from members of our community. Our plan is to get local businesses to advertise in our magazine and give the profits to charity. We will also have a website that features articles written in between the publication of different issues.
My brother and I came up with this idea because we both like information. Because of this, we watch the news and read magazines. While there are many good options out there targeted at kids and teens, they are all created by adults. We also wanted to do something charitable to help people in need. Our magazine was created by the merger of both of these causes.
Name: Sayan S. Age: 14 Lives in: Atlanta, GA Project Title: What’s Up
In my free time, I like to read, play tennis, and watch Michigan football. My favorite books are Shoe Dog and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I also love to watch The Good Doctor and Stranger Things with my family. Another family activity I love to do is play board games, my favorites are Monopoly and Pictionary.
My brother and I are jointly working on a magazine which will be released quarterly. Our magazine is targeted towards kids between 13-18, and will also be written by kids from the same age group. It will include art and writing, along with news, sports, restaurant reviews, city happenings, and pop-culture articles. For each issue, we will pick 4 charities, and we will split the ad profits among these charities. We will also offer online copies through Issuu. Our website will also feature other work by kids in our community.
My brother and I came up with this idea because we love the news, but sometimes it gets really boring. This was the original inspiration behind making a news magazine for kids. We searched for magazines like this, and we found many. There was only one problem, all of these magazines were written by adults. We also wanted to use our idea to help charities, while also bringing the community together. These causes were the inspiration for our magazine.
Started in 1999, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development is a 501(c)3 private operating foundation. Our mission is to recognize, nurture and support profoundly intelligent young people ages 18 and under, and to provide opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference. Profoundly gifted students are those who score in the 99.9th percentile on IQ and achievement tests. Read more about this population in this article.