This year, we are thrilled to celebrate the continuation of 22 Community Change Projects, each founded by previous Bezos Scholars. These projects represent innovative and creative solutions to community needs, and their continued growth highlights the dedication and impact of the student leaders who move them forward. As these projects evolve, new student leaders work to continue building teams, refining project designs, and implementing dynamic and engaging activities that resonate with their communities. We are excited to showcase this year’s projects, honoring the student leaders and their teams and the broader supportive communities that make these projects possible.

Civics Delivered

Project Theme: Civic Engagement
Years in Existence: 4
Target Audience and Location: 8-12th grade students in the San Fernando Valley
Mission: To inspire action among teens and increase awareness of mental health challenges
Project Description: Founding student scholar Sarah Tran and educator scholar Cindy Quintana created Civics Delivered to empower young people with the skills to drive change in their communities. Student leader Olivia Zhao and the team are distributing their Wellness Handbook this year. This 90-page document contains evidence-based coping skills and 28 interactive activities for their peers at meetings and workshops they host. Their goal is to improve student’s emotional well-being while continuing to celebrate academic excellence. The team is most proud of “creating a physical and digital handbook that provides activities for so many students.”

CLIP (Creating Legal Immigration Pathways)

Project Theme: Immigration Resources
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Immigrants in the San Fernando Valley
Mission: Advocating for local immigrants by streamlining connections with legal and professional resources through events with community partners.
Project Description: Started by founding Scholars Aayushi Garg and Sean Lewis, CLIP Foundation was created to empower immigrants by providing free and accessible resources and legal aid to those unable to afford it. Recognizing the challenges immigrants face, CLIP works with nonprofit professionals, community members, and attorneys to understand the complexity of applying for and gaining citizenship. This year’s leader, Stephanie Dinh, is proud that “my work with CLIP means that one more citizenship case is being processed and that half a dozen more people have started the process that they were too scared to begin on their own.”

Colton High School Wellness Fair

Project Theme: Mental Health and Wellness
Years in Existence: 5
Target Audience and Location: Colton High School and Colton Joint Unified School District Communities in Colton, California.
Mission: Colton High School Wellness Fair eliminates the stigma attached to mental health by empowering students to advocate for their mental health needs.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Ernest Mateo Cisneros and educator Jorge Alverez dreamed of a community where mental health and wellness were prioritized, leading them to create a wellness fair filled with activities and expert guidance for the Colton community. This year’s student leader, Kimberly Robles, has worked with the team to create a wellness garden where the school’s 1727 students can visit, help grow produce and flowers, and spend time taking care of themselves. Robles is proud to say that “our project continues to grow in impact and adapts to the needs of the students each year.”

Don’t Oppress Youth Success

Project Theme: School-to-Prison Pipeline Prevention
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Students at Dexter McCarty Middle School.
Mission: Through education and advocacy, we inspire educators to utilize positive relationship-building and restorative justice practices while connecting caring high school mentors of color to middle schoolers who need them most.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Kim Cortes-Martinez and educator Cyrus Harshfield designed their project to address the overrepresentation of young men of color in school disciplinary actions and the juvenile justice systems. They created a mentorship program comprised of high school mentors who support and connect with sixth-grade students. Carried forward by student leader Luong Nguyen, the project will continue to empower students by hosting opportunities for high school mentors to connect with middle school students. Luong is most proud that “we had middle school students go through our program, graduate middle school, and then matriculate back to the program as high school mentors.”

The Dewasters

Project Theme: Environmental Justice
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: Seaside residents in Seaside, CA.
Mission: Through education about how garbage in landfills contributes to climate change, we inspire our community to change their attitude and habits so they actively reduce their waste.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Jackie Ballesteros Martinez and her educator Scholar Sarah Lester Guzmán designed their project to promote sustainability practices within coastal communities, aimed to educate others while reducing waste. This year, student leader Jacqueline Sullivan is working with her team to partner with Communities for a Sustainable Monterey County to create informational videos on the impact of litter on coastal communities. These videos will be shown in local middle school classrooms. Jacqueline is most proud that “our project is reaching so many community members from middle school students to volunteers and families; they are all involved in making our community cleaner.”

FLARE (Financial Literacy and Advancement for Rio Grande Valley Equity)

Project Theme: Financial Literacy
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: McAllen Memorial High School students and the wider Rio Grande Valley (RGV) community.
Mission: To advocate and cultivate financial literacy for teens by providing positive learning experiences.
Project Description: Founding student Scholar David Munoz and educator Aimee Nunez were passionate about empowering their community through financial literacy to break generational cycles of poverty. By hosting local events with partner community organizations, FLARE expands students’ understanding of what it means to be financially responsible. This year’s student leader, Kayli Perez-Ramirez, is working with her team to partner with their local bank and library to host their series of money conversations called Dinero Discussions, where students from RGV can participate in finance-related simulations. Kayli is most proud of “partnering with the Boys and Girls Club to host an event where FLARE will present programming that is age-appropriate for middle school students.”

Greater Good in Action (formerly Period.)

Project Theme: Period Poverty and Mental Health
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: Framingham High School community in Framingham, MA.
Mission: Greater Good in Action will provide the Framingham community with accessible resources while offering education and advocacy through campaigns, fundraisers and community events.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Amelia Coates and educator Scholar Diane Burke centered their project on period poverty and the struggle menstruating individuals face in affording and accessing menstrual products. Originally called Period., the project aimed to provide free and accessible menstruation supplies within the school district. As the project has evolved, this year’s student leader, Anaya Ray, has transformed the project into Greater Good in Action, focused on providing students with the awareness, education, and resources to navigate tough subjects, such as period poverty. While the team continues to advocate for and provide free menstrual products, they also shed light on breast cancer awareness, gun violence, and food insecurity, all topics that have impacted their community. Anaya is proud of “the partnerships we’ve established in the community; we’ve partnered with an organization that provides free menstrual products in the community as well as with an organization that provides food assistance for neighbors in need.”

Golden Eagle Outreach

Project Theme: Student Belonging
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Freshman at Central High School in Aberdeen, South Dakota
Mission: To cultivate student belonging by promoting team-building activities and service opportunities that help them learn about and connect with their community.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Breanna Wollman and educator Kerry Konda, both active members of their school community, noticed that incoming high school students were struggling with finding a sense of belonging at school after returning to in-person learning after the pandemic. In response, they quickly organized a team to focus on building connections between first-year students in their “super study” classes, offering relationship-building activities and community service opportunities. This year’s student leaders, Mya Hientzman and Pasily LaFave, are continuing the tradition of connecting with freshman high school students as they begin high school to create community through club involvement and community service. The two of them are most proud that “more students joined clubs, and 11 of our student-run clubs did a community outreach and service project.”

IGNITE (Inspiring Growth, Nurturing Innovation, and Teaching Empowerment)

Project Theme: Under-Resourced STEM Access
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Middle school students exhibiting low STEM scores in Patchogue-Medford School District.
Mission: To nurture middle school students’ passion for STEM learning by providing near-peer mentorship and interactive educational activities.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Rithika Sivapokaran and educator scholar Emily Rhome combined their passions for STEM and mental health for middle school students. With their partner middle schools, they developed a peer mentorship program, where high school students mentor middle schoolers on STEM topics while incorporating social-emotional learning strategies to form strong bonds across six afterschool sessions. This year’s student leader, Isabella Katz, is focused on engaging more high school mentors through her team’s partnership with the STEM Honor Society. The team is also working to build a more diverse curriculum for mentors to use that discusses STEM-related opportunities, including academics and career choices.

Lamar Thrift

Project Theme: Climate Change and Waste Reduction
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: Lamar High School community in Houston, TX.
Mission: Lamar Thrift engages the student body by hosting ongoing drives in our community to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Franklin Wu and educator Scholar Sally Woolweaver created a project aimed at reducing the impacts of climate change by organizing donation drives to reduce waste in landfills. Leveraging their school’s National Honor Society members, the team hosts several donation drives while educating the community about how climate change impacts the greater Houston area. Recognizing the effects of climate change will continue, this year’s student leader, Matthew Wu, alongside his team, is increasing the number of donation drives they will host this school year with the goal of decreasing the amount of waste that is sent to the landfill. To do so, they plan to partner with other clubs on campus to increase student participation in the donation drive. Matthew is proud of “how our project has expanded the opportunities for students and community members to get involved, learn about climate change, and build connections based on our desire for change in the Lamar community.”

Let’s TALC (Teach, Access, Learn, Choice)

Project Theme: Opioid and Drug Addiction Prevention
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: Governor Thomas Johnson High School students in Frederick, MD.
Mission: Let’s TALC offers teens opportunities for healthy stress relief and to practice informed decision-making about drugs and opioids in a supportive community.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Diya Jha and educator Scholar Paige Spangler established Let’s TALC to raise awareness about opioid and drug addiction while fostering a supportive environment that avoids scare tactics. Through community events partnered with local businesses, Let’s TALC offers students the opportunity to learn about the impacts of drug addiction, share personal experiences, and exchange positive coping strategies. This year’s leader, Jake Grumwell, along with his team, seeks to provide outlets and resources for their peers to encourage healthy habits. One of their signature events, Therapy Dogs, seeks to provide a fun after-school activity that creates an environment that welcomes conversation about the impact of substance abuse. The team is proud of “the success we’ve seen with our events, including a Color Run and Therapy Dogs.”

Let’s Connect! Rancho

Project Theme: Community Connection and Sense of Belonging
Years in Existence: 4
Target Audience and Location: Rancho High School students and teachers in Reno, Nevada.
Mission: To foster a sense of comfort between students and teachers by providing fun, cost-free, and community-building-focused opportunities.
Project Description: In 2022, founding Scholar Runzhi Hu and educator Scholar Susan Potts aimed to foster positive interactions between students and teachers at Rancho High School. Their project, Let’s Connect! Rancho, addressed the challenges of remote learning by facilitating connections through school activities, such as a Connection Cafe. This year’s student leader, Ekemini Okon, along with her team, is focused on bridging the gap between groups of students impacted by the lack of connection and social-emotional support. Through a series of after-school activities which include scavenger hunts and trivia games, the team plans for students to find new friends and share more about their experiences at the school. Ekemini is most proud of “the bravery and eagerness that my team has towards making a change in our school community. I am so inspired and proud of our underclassmen, who will later take over this project and are always ready for the next step of our project!”

Mynd Revolution

Project Theme: Mental Health
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Sandra O’Connor High School, Deer Valley High School, and Boulder Creek High School communities in Phoenix, Arizona.
Mission: We advocate for and create wellness centers with school communities to prioritize mental health support and resources.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Brendan Salisbury and educator supporter Ashley Halloff designed a project centered on illuminating the importance of positive mental health practices for high school students in their community. Driven by personal experiences, they established wellness centers at two high schools in hopes of creating spaces for students to connect with one another. This year’s student leaders, Madelene Salisbury and Alexa McCracken, are focused on expanding their wellness centers to a third high school while centralizing mental health resources, providing coping activities for students, as well as creating student sanctuaries to decompress for students and educators.

NorCal Science & Technology Festival

Project Theme: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) access
Years in Existence: 10
Target Audience and Location: Students within the Lodi Unified School District in Lodi, CA.
Mission: To stimulate student/educator and community engagement in STEAMS by encouraging sustainability and celebrating the fun in science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
Project Description: Founding Bezos Scholar Julie Fukunaga and educatorScholar Sandi Starr were driven by their passion for STEM, leading them to create their project focused on expanding STEAM opportunities for students. Headed into its 10th year, the NorCal Science and Technology Festival aims to boost students’ confidence by hosting a festival and inviting scientists, STEAM practitioners and college students to offer engaging and interactive activities. This year’s student leader, Taylor Smith, is proud of “our fundraising efforts and ability to obtain funding from partnerships and sponsorships that also believe in giving students access to STEAM opportunities.”

Noteworthy Music Club and Festival

Years in Existence: 14
Project Theme: Elementary Music Education
Target Audience and Location: Patrick Henry High School Community and Roanoke County Public School students in Roanoke, Virginia.
Mission: To connect students and teachers who are passionate about music and music education to raise money to sponsor music education and buy new instruments for elementary school students in our community.
Project Description: Founded in 2011 by Scholars Locher Grove and educator Nicole Doherty, The Noteworthy Music Festival celebrates the community’s passion for music while enhancing access to instruments and music education for local elementary school students. Each year, Noteworthy works to fundraise to support one of 17 of Roanoke’s elementary schools’ music programs. Led by this year’s student co-leaders, Mary Clarke and Blair Moon, the team is sponsoring Morning Side Elementary, a Title 1 school serving 237 students in the southeast neighborhood of Roanoke. The project team has hosted multiple fundraising events and has already raised over $3,000 for student instruments. The team looks forward to hosting their annual music festival this May and doubling their fundraising efforts.

POP Festival

Years in Existence: 4
Project Theme: Post-Secondary Exploration
Target Audience and Location: 9-12 grade students at Brown County High School in Indiana
Mission: To equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead a purpose-driven life by connecting them to post-secondary educational institutions and opportunities.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Josephine Fields and educator Scholar Kristi Billings developed The Pursuing Our Purpose (POP) Festival for high school students in grades 9-12 to explore their purpose through a daylong event filled with workshops led by community members, college educators, and local businesses. The goal of the festival is to encourage students to ask questions, build connections, and discover their purpose in an engaging way. This year, led by student leaders Shauna Custard and Taylor Lucas, the POP Festival is focused on ensuring their peers understand the multitude of opportunities and choices they have related to success after high school. Through this year’s guest facilitators, the team is excited to empower students to make purpose-aligned and financially feasible decisions about their next steps.

South Texas Ideas Festival (STXi)

Years in Existence: 9
Project Theme: Education and Civic Engagement
Target Audience and Location: Students and families in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in South Texas, hosted by students from the Idea Quest College Preparatory School in Edinburg, Texas.
Mission: To create a platform by and for young adults to engage them in an actionable dialogue about culture, community and identity.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Michael Mireles and educator Scholar Marcos Silva created STXi to inspire young people to celebrate their culture and identity through an annual festival featuring community leaders and speakers from the Rio Grande Valley. As STXi heads into its 9th festival year, they are focused on increasing festival attendance by 20%, increasing their social media engagement and ensuring youth feel more connected to their heritage and inspired to celebrate South Texas culture. This year’s STXi co-leaders, Sophia Flores and Anthony Capetillo, are proud of “the networking we’ve done to build connections and accomplished milestones we’ve set out to hit.”

STEM Connect

Project Theme: STEM Inclusion and Support
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: STEM Academy students at Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, VA.
Mission: Reignite STEM academic confidence through peer mentorship and exposure to real-world STEM careers and applications.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Anish Aradhey and educator Scholar Danae Delozier, inspired by their shared passion for STEM, recognized the need for more inclusive practices in their high school’s courses. STEM Connect focuses on hosting after-school sessions outside of class to improve study skills, foster connections between underclassmen and upperclassmen, and offer tutoring and study support. This year’s team, led by student leaders Giovanni Sanchez-Garcia and Addison Mason, is focused on reevaluating the overall needs of the students in the STEM academy to further refine their offerings. To increase mentorship, the team has hosted STEMinars, which are quarterly opportunities for student connection; they are also creating mini-lessons where mentors teach their mentees and collaborate with one another on STEM-related activities.

Student Wellness Committee

Project Theme: Mental Health and Wellness, Sense of Belonging
Years in Existence: 4
Target Audience and Location: 9-12th graders at Hightower High School in Missouri City, Texas.
Mission: Provide resources that will assist students with creating a healthy lifestyle that includes physical, mental and nutritional wellness, in addition to being a well-rounded leader in our community.
Project Description: Inspired by their personal experiences with mental health, founding Scholars Isabel Ohakamma and Dr. John Ramon created the Student Wellness Coalition to address mental health challenges students were voicing at their school. To do so, they organized activities centered around self-care, mental hygiene, and stress relief techniques. This year’s student leader, Allison Nguyen, is leading the team to consider how to explore the effects of high expectations of school and academic excellence from society.

Heading into its fourth year, the project continues to host engagement socials, which are aimed at encouraging students to take breaks and engage with others in a social setting.

Unite!

Project Theme: Sense of Belonging
Years in Existence: 3
Target Audience and Location: Union High School in Camas, WA, school community.
Mission: Unite! increases student engagement in school clubs, organizations and activities by hosting club match events and a club showcase.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Jean Lin and educator Scholar Erik Wiitanen set out to increase student engagement in extracurricular activities at Union High School by designing a club matching event where students fill out a survey that pairs them with clubs they might be interested in. This year’s Unite! team, led by student leaders Marley Johnsen and Joanne Lin, is focused on engaging incoming first-year students by having club members attend new student orientations to connect students before enrolling in courses. They aim to connect each incoming first-year student with a student club to increase a sense of belonging and contribute positively to student academics. Marley and Joanne are proud of “the very successful club showcase where groups were able to perform a skit that represented their club and what it’s like to be a part of it.”

Wellness4Washtenaw

Project Theme: Mental Health
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Washtenaw International Middle Academy and Washtenaw International High School (WIMAHI) students in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
Mission: To increase students’ knowledge of and access to mental health resources by strengthening relationships with mental health providers.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Dyuthi Aryasomayajula and educator scholar Dan Giddings created their project to address the impact the global mental health crisis had on students and wanted to create a system to alleviate the high population-to-provider ratio of 187:1. They built a student team that collaborates with the school’s social service team and club leaders to make referrals to staff, encourage peers to reach out for support, and provide monthly workshops for middle schoolers on various mental health topics. This year’s team, led by student Atharv Murthy, is working to engage more students and connect them to pre-existing mental health resources that exist on and off campus while building partnerships with local middle and elementary schools that share similar resources.

Day 28 (formerly Youth for HOPE)

Project Theme: Period Poverty
Years in Existence: 2
Target Audience and Location: Individuals receiving support for homelessness and/or domestic violence in San Bernardino County, California.
Mission: To advocate for and provide access to free period products to individuals lacking menstrual resources in San Bernardino County shelters through community fundraising and donations.
Project Description: Founding Scholar Jessie Lin and educator James Wilson created this project after identifying their passion for women’s health. The team focused on collecting and donating over 3,500 menstrual products to local shelters. As the project and team grew, they chose to change their name to Day 28 as it represented the 28-day length of a menstrual cycle and the importance of day communicating renewal, purpose and hope. This year’s leader Emily Wang is excited to continue donating menstrual products to local shelters while expanding the project’s reach by launching a Day 28 education campaign that destigmatizes period poverty and menstruation. Emily is most proud “that we are able to collect so many products that we are then able to donate to local shelters, alleviating challenges many menstruating people face.”

We are excited to celebrate these student leaders, along with the teams and community members they've involved, for the projects they’ve launched and expanded to create lasting change in their communities. Every Scholar-led project is eligible to apply for ongoing funding from the Bezos Family Foundation. Learn more about Community Change Projects.