I was thirteen when I came up with the idea to create an organization: Growth Against Adversity.

This passion took shape in the middle of a seventh-grade English class. I was doing an assignment that would usually be considered mundane—answering questions about a book. Instead, it caught my attention. It discussed refugees from South Sudan and the difficulty of having a good education, especially for girls. Hearing how they had to sacrifice their education for basic needs left me feeling unsettled. This wasn’t just a problem in South Sudan; it was a problem worldwide, and even for generations in my own family. My grandmother, for example, had to get married at thirteen. 

In that moment, I immediately asked my friend, Evah Peter, if she wanted to co-found an organization with me.

We started out as a team of eight with no plans, only passion. All we had was a notebook, a website in the making, and our phones. Yet, at the time, this was already significant to us. Most of what we learned came from YouTube tutorials, but we started contacting lawyers for legal matters and other local youth leaders who gave us real-world advice on fundraising, donations, and the complicated registration process. Now, we’ve made an impact in nine countries and twenty-two states.

The beginning wasn’t inspiring. It started with a fundraiser that nearly lost us money, a failed campaign, and social media that reached almost no one. We realized this was due to a lack of credibility. It was nearly impossible to start international efforts without real achievements to begin with. After a whole summer of constantly posting videos and trying out volunteer recruitment websites, we had our first successful project: a back-to-school drive. This was because we tapped into our own community and made local efforts first.

From there, we created a program called the “Sapling Initiative” to help students find extracurriculars and opportunities that they never knew existed. This aided us in expanding even further—into the Philippines, France, Slovakia, and beyond. This was done with a single tool: social media. We released a form where students could enter their interests and location, allowing our team of researchers to find specific summer programs, volunteering, or internships near or accessible to each individual. Furthermore, after working on marketing strategies, our TikTok gained over 2,600 followers.

This not only helped Evah and I create impact, but it taught us that success isn’t immediate. It takes time. Now, as a high school freshman, I’m helping a middle schooler create his own nonprofit through a club, Power in Passion, that I was once a mentee of. It’s exciting to give him resources to fundraise with and advice on how to grow. I was once the person asking questions, and now I’m the one that helps people find answers.

One of our most useful resources include volunteer recruitment websites (e.g., Idealist). It’s a simple way to gain volunteers from different states or even countries. It is also valuable to reach out to other young leaders to gain additional guidance or insight from them. Olivia Zhang, for example, posts a wide-range of immensely helpful tutorials and step-by-step guides on her social media, and has even published a book for young people starting nonprofits.