From recycling to social inequality, our students are using their skills and voices to solve some of the world’s toughest issues. As part of Think It Up Live: DC and the LearnServe Fellows program, our students are designing projects (and winning funding for their initiatives!) to better our school and community.

At Think It Up Live: DC, Middle School teachers Monika Copelmayer and Lapeta Solomon accompanied a team of students to present a proposal to end bullying. High School teacher Jose Cuevas helped his students share a green idea to turn plastic waste into usable materials. Both groups won $1,000 to jumpstart their initiatives.

High School teacher Binni Chadda encouraged 10th graders Jovanni and Jhoana to become LearnServe Fellows, a year-long program where students design projects to benefit their communities. Jovanni is collaborating with a student in MD on Color My World, an initiative to reduce waste and inspire creativity by repurposing the 100+ million crayons that are thrown out every year. Jhoana is focused on gender equality and closing the wage gap. "LearnServe is helping expand my knowledge of world issues," says Jhoana "[and] actually make a change." This spring, they will pitch their ideas to a panel of business and community leaders with the opportunity to receive funding to kickstart their projects.