EMPOWERING OTHER YOUNG PEOPLE THROUGH PROGRAMMING

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Shaan Yu. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Shaan Yu always wanted to build something. Now he’s doing it every single day. The 16-year-old high school student always had big dreams. In his freshman year of high school, he learned how to program computers and was quickly on his way. However, he soon learned that his age would be a roadblock to being taken seriously. Already trying to start companies at a young age, he discovered that investors were insecure about getting involved with him because he was only a teenager. Knowing that he was just as capable as anyone, Shaan was determined to make it clear that his age wouldn’t hold him back. But he also wanted to help other young people with big dreams get beyond those age-related roadblocks.

So Shaan and another high school student founded the Constellation Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing mentorship to student-led businesses. Shaan provides guidance and resources to fellow high school students and young leaders who want to start businesses, giving them the foundation to build those big dreams that can change the world. Thus far, Shaan’s work with the Constellation Foundation has helped student organizations throughout the U.S. and Europe raise over $150,000.

Shaan is also a volunteer with Research to Empower, an educational initiative aimed at addressing the lack of research support, courses, mentorship and information for aspiring researchers at the elementary to middle and high school level as a supplement to the K-12 curriculum. He built an application that provides resources to research, as well as mentorship, using artificial intelligence. A UNESCO-endorsed organization, Research to Empower has raised over $200,000 and reached more than 200,000 students in 140 countries. Whether he’s teaching others to write code or design apps, Shaan is helping the next generation build their dreams. His willingness to share his time to educate others while still navigating his own busy high school career is a powerful testament to how volunteerism can change the world.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

When I was in my freshman year of high school, I was trying to start companies. I found out very quickly that it’s very hard because people will doubt you when you’re young. I went to New York with my co-founders, and we were talking to investors, and were getting rejections because they were worried about my age. This was really disheartening and disappointing to hear. That’s how I started working with the Constellation Foundation, which is a nonprofit founded by me and one other high school student. We wanted to make it normal for students to be able to start businesses and gain traction. Nowadays, we need more people to build companies, build organizations, build software and build social good. The problem is that there is a really high bar in terms of age. Anybody under a certain age can be doubted in terms of their capability. There are a lot of other components, but that’s a big thing that I’ve experienced and I’ve seen around me. It’s something that I want to change.

What inspires you to volunteer?

Life is short, and I want to make the maximum amount of impact I can on the world around me before I go. I don’t want to be stuck working some job that lacks much meaning, or doing something that isn’t really impactful. I want to make sure that I touch as many people as possible, and I think that these kinds of initiatives I’ve been working on really diligently for the past couple of years have really helped me achieve that goal. I don’t plan to stop anytime soon. For example, with Research to Empower, which provides scientific research, resources and teaches underrepresented students the scientific method, we have reached around 200,000 students.

Tell us about your volunteer role with the Constellation Foundation and Research to Empower.

I’m primarily on the technical side. So my focus is on building technology and programming things that will help other people. For example, with Research to Empower, I built an application that provides our resources to research, but also provides mentorship using artificial intelligence with ready-to-access, really fast resources. With the Constellation Foundation, I provided direct technical mentorship to these organizations, specifically ones that were building technical products or technical software.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

I hope to follow my goal of trying to impact and help as many people as possible around the world. I think that the more people who start building things, the better. Right now, we have this problem in society where a lot of people feel like they’re trapped in working corporate jobs, working with large companies, and they have dreams and aspirations and ideas that are just not being brought to fruition, and I don’t like that. My big goal is to touch as many people as possible, and also to inspire more people to start building.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part of my work is seeing the impact that it has created. I’ve inspired several people to start building through my work. I’ve talked to people. There are a large number of people whom I’ve encouraged to follow their dreams. I think that the more people who are following their dreams of building new things that will help society and help everybody in the world, the better. Right now, we’re kind of stuck ihaving a few very large companies that build a lot of software. I think that it really should be decentralized. Every single person should build what they think is ideal and build out their dreams. The more applications, the more products, the more nonprofits and the more organizations out there, the better.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve definitely learned a lot. When I started freshman year, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know how to program yet, but I started working and was really hoping to get into this kind of space. After a year or two, I did, and I think I’ve come a long way since then. I think I’ve learned that even if you think what you’re working on is minor, it really does largely affect other people around you. When I started, I was worried that what I was doing wasn’t important enough. But then I finally started seeing actual results and actual impact stories, and people were inspired by my work. I think it was really inspiring.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

I think people should always follow their dreams. It’s always important to follow your dreams and build the ideas you come up with. I think that if everybody in the world started building the ideas that they had and started following their dreams, I think we’d be a lot further along than we are now.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Go online. Find an organization you’re interested in. Go email everybody and see what you can do. The thing about nonprofit organizations is that they’re always looking for more people who can help out. I think that you should put yourself out there. It’s really easy to work with these organizations and make an impact. It’s easier to get started than I originally thought when I got into all of this.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Shaan? Find local volunteer opportunities.