Seattle Teenager Combines Entrepreneurship, Art and Technology for a Unique Nonprofit Approach

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

When he was five, Chirag Vedullapalli decided to make his own way in the world. Instead of following in his mom’s steps as a basketball player, he gravitated toward art with his godmother. After moving to Washington when he was ten, he and his art teacher hosted an art expo at her house called ‘Blooming Hearts’. Kids from his art class came together and created paintings that they donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital. After hosting the event and seeing what a positive impact it had on not only the hospital but also the friends who participated, Chirag had a lightbulb moment.

“I realized that when you create opportunities for kids that they not only want to be part of [the event] but it allows them to be empowered to give back to the community,” he says. “They more than willingly would jump in headfirst in wanting to be part of it.”

Chirag wanted to provide an alternative to traditional volunteering and engage kids in something they genuinely enjoyed doing, rather than participating because they felt obligated or required.

With that incentive in mind, Chirag created Creative Children for Charity or otherwise known as 3C. Since 2010, Creative Children for Charity has worked with over 42 organizations and corporations in the Seattle area and out of state to support Creative Children for Charity’s work. Initially, C3 hosted events focused on art, much like ‘Blooming Hearts’. After hosting several events including a Guinness World Record event, they landed on entrepreneurship and technology as their main focus. To date, 3C has donated over 11 thousand volunteer hours, worked with more than 6,500 youth and supported over 17 nonprofits in the community.

Chirag based Creative Children for Charity around three pillars: entrepreneurship, STEAM-3D and working with other nonprofits.

His first pillar, entrepreneurship, inspired him to start The Children’s Business Fair, the largest entrepreneurship event for kids in North America. It’s designed similarly to a farmer’s market except it’s for youth, by youth. Kids are given a chance at creating their product, designing their brand, practicing their pitch and pricing their products – all aspects of entrepreneurship. To achieve this goal, The Acton business fair provides a curriculum that helps them establish a business, even if it’s their first time starting.

“We take whatever their interests are and build it from the ground up,” says Chirag. “We help them build a product they can showcase. The fair is really exciting because it helps the participants grow as individuals, as well as provide an opportunity to donate part of, if not all of their earnings to a charity of their choice.”

Chirag wants to give the kids a chance to create something that they can sell or donate beyond the Children’s Business Fair.

The second pillar is STEAM-3D. Chirag believes that art is a crucial component of STEM because it allows kids to be innovative. This pillar is based on bringing together these two fields – STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). By combining STEM and art, students become more agile thinkers and provide the best option for kids to become global citizens. 3D printing was the perfect medium to introduce kids to technology while also incorporating creative ideas and thinking. STEAM-3D utilizes a structured curriculum, workbook and a web-based CAD (computer-aided design) program that allows students to optimize learning while having a great time.

“We realized there was a big opportunity gap in our community in Washington,” says Chirag. “When we did some research on it, we found out according to Forbes, that 30% of engineering jobs prioritized 3D printing. But there had only been ten schools with a 3D printing curriculum in Washington. So when we discovered this huge opportunity gap we decided we were going to be the ones to solve it.”

The teen instructors and advisors hail from Creative Children for Charity (3C) and have taught classes and sponsored hackathons at Coder Dojo in Bellevue and The Garage on the Microsoft campus. The registration fees from this class go to support other STEAM-hosted youth events in our community including a summer STEAM3D Hackathon.

They have seen schools K – 12 starting to adopt STEAM, and three other chapters have adopted Charity for Creative Children’s 3D workshop. It’s a growing operation, but it has a huge impact. Chirag wants to increase access to 3D printing design, as well as STEAM workshops. He says it’s been exciting to experience that growth and watch how his STEAM-3D model has made a positive impact on the community.

The third and final pillar is engaging with other nonprofits to find opportunities for kids that are not part of the normal volunteering format.

Chirag acknowledges his team as an essential part of Creative Children for Charity’s success. “In ninth grade we usually find youth leaders to get involved and they stick with us through senior year. Not only are they able to contribute to their community – to all of our communities – they’re able to grow as well. They learn how to plan events, raise sponsorships, all of the skills that will help them become more successful.”

At times, Chirag’s age has made leaders question if he can handle projects at a certain scope. Being able to prove that he can handle large projects has been one of the most rewarding parts of growing his own nonprofit. Chirag said he had the opportunity to speak at the Women and Girl’s Summit Event at the U.N.

“There aren’t many of these programs happening around the world,” says Chirag. “To be part of that and knowing that I’m able to do what I can for my community and then contribute to this global development of youth generation and the next generation lit a lightbulb in my head.”

Chirag is continuing his efforts in all parts of the Creative Children for Charity organization.

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

Ohio Teenager Creates Nonprofit to Bring Books to Inmates

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

Many students are keen to forget about their school assignments upon turning them in. For Ohio high school student Jacob Hervey, however, a research paper on education in the American prison system inspired him to create his own nonprofit, Books Behind Bars, in the hopes of bringing positive change to inmates at his local jail.

Through extensive research for his paper, Jacob learned about the lack of educational and reading materials in jails and prisons across America, as well as how inmates who read while in prison have a lower chance of reoffending once they are released. This inspired him to begin collecting books to donate to his local jail. Now 17, Jacob has spent the past year collecting and donating about 1,500 books to his local Stark County Jail, and hopes to begin donating to other nearby jails as well.

Describe your volunteer role with Books Behind Bars.

Books Behind Bars is a nonprofit I started last year. It tries to bring reading materials and other sorts of books and nonfiction material into prisons, so the inmates have a chance to read and reflect while they are in there, so there is a lower chance that they commit recidivism.

What made you want to start this organization?

The main reason I started it was in my junior year, for my English course, I had to write a research paper and the only limitation my teacher put on it was it had to be about education in America. I chose for my subtopic to be education in the American prison system. I did a month of pretty intense research with that course. With that, I realized the mere scarcity of books. It’s like a drought in our prisons of reading material. That’s when I contacted Frank Forchione, one of our county judges, and he helped me contact sheriffs and other officials in our area to really get through the paperwork and bureaucracy part of it. From there, I’ve just been collecting books and distributing it to our local jails.

Have you received any feedback from the inmates or the jail you donate to?

When I delivered my first round of donations to the county jail, I got overwhelming feedback right away from the sheriffs and other officers there. They welcomed my friends and I who were bringing [the books] very nicely. They brought me into their office and thanked me. On the inmate side of things, people have emailed me thanking me from their family and from the inmates themselves, showing their gratitude, which was really meaningful because I like hearing the first-hand account of how people are affected.

Our city mayor has sent me a letter, our state representative. Seeing the support it’s gaining is pretty empowering to me, because I feel like a lot of times we see prisoners and inmates get overlooked in society. Because they committed a crime once, we like to label them as always wrongdoers, but I think the fact that it’s receiving more support from my community is indicative of how the opinions are changing in my area.

What would you want people who put that label of ‘always being wrongdoers’ on inmates to know?

What I always like to say is obviously, these people are in jail for a reason, but most of the time it’s for nonviolent offenses. Ninety percent of people in county jails are for drug offenses. But what I like to think is even if these people have committed a violent or even nonviolent crime, I think education and books are a critical way to break that cycle. What happens across the nation, somewhere between 80 to 90 percent of inmates are rearrested in the next decade and land themselves back in jail. Reading and education while in jail is a way to help them reflect on themselves. It helps them once they leave jail to really not fall into that trap of committing crime over and over again. What I say is, most of the time these inmates aren’t violent people like we stereotype them as, but even for people who are [imprisoned for violent crimes], it’s critical to help them and give them these materials so it doesn’t become a cycle of crime.

How do you fundraise and gather the books?

There are a variety of sources I get my books through. The first is through pure donations from family and friends. For example, there was an article in our local newspaper about my project, and from there my friends, family and some community members I had never heard of sent donated books to me. The second avenue I collect books is through companies and entities that donate. For example, the very first large donation I received was from Akron Bookstore. They were closing so they invited me and a couple of my friends to go up there and take any books we wanted from the entire store. Also for example, yesterday I drove about an hour to this church that had their own library that they were cleaning out, and they donated a few hundred books. The third way I get fundraising and books is through monetary donations. There’s a third-party nonprofit that collects money from local community members. Just recently in the last month or so, they told me they were going to be donating their quarter revenue to Books Behind Bars. That’s going to be around $3,000 in cash that is going to be donated to my nonprofit, and then I will choose what books to purchase with that and what to use those funds for.

Is there a certain type of book you are looking for when you’re collecting donations?

When I’m collecting donations, I normally accept them all and vet through them to see which ones are most likely to be accepted well by the inmates. Whenever people ask me when they’re purchasing books, which types people like most, [I say] in the world of fiction, a lot of these inmates like military history and sports fiction stories. Realistic fiction is their favorite genre, typically. Also, I like finding self-help books and ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.’ Those types of books are really good just because the purpose, like I said, is to reduce recidivism and this cycle of leaving jail and just falling right back into the cycle of crime, and education is a powerful tool that can break that. I try to get books that can help them reflect more on that. I’m trying to also buy GED books for these people so they can study while they’re in jail and hopefully when they leave they’re encouraged, because many of them lack high school diplomas depending on the demographics of where [the jail] is and if it’s a county jail or prison. Regardless, I’m trying to get some GED books to help study for that when they leave.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

It definitely has reaffirmed my belief in the importance of not stereotyping and stigmatizing criminals. I think we as a society really like to try to stigmatize and label them. Through this process I also learned the importance of initiative. I think a lot of times when I ask for donations from people, they look at me strange because I am a 17-year-old trying to start my own nonprofit to help some stigmatized group in our society. I think from a youth perspective, it’s important to hear the youths’ voices and I think this project has showed me the power that even one person can have, let alone a minor. I think my message to the world is you really need to trust the voices of the youth because they can have messages as powerful as even the most senior of people.

Why do you think it’s important for others to give back?

In my case specifically, I think it’s important to break the cycle of crime because that effects everyone in the U.S. Somewhere close to 80 to 100 billion dollars a year, we spend housing these criminals who commit recidivism specifically. I think in the more general and literal sense of giving back to your community — I’m Jewish and we have this saying ‘Tikkun olam,’ which means repairing the world. It’s almost your obligation to help the people. I know if I’m in an area of strife and need some outreach from people in the community, I can expect that from my community, the same way I want my community to be able to rely on me. It’s more of a yin and yang relationship, almost.

If you are interested in helping out Books Behind Bars, you can contact Jacob.

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

14-Year-Old Is an Activist for College Readiness and Big Dreams

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Ila Prabhuram. Read her story and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Ila Prabhuram’s dreams are unlimited. They’re not distilled down into a specific interest or defined by one field. She’s bold enough to imagine a variety of careers for her future. What her plans do share is a common theme: helping others. It’s no surprise Ila would stand in front of the Georgia Board of Education and make the case for hundreds of kids who do not have access to resources that would help them pursue their big dreams in college. She’s an advocate for dreams, which is why she started College Pathway – to be a support system, a resource, and an advocate for college readiness.

“In 2018, I decided and discovered a passion for empowering students to become changemakers through education,” says Ila.

Her idea for College Pathway came when she was tutoring at a trailer park. The mother of one of her students told Ila her son was not going to attend college. Ila pressed why he wouldn’t be able to pursue higher education. He was only in elementary school – how could she already know college was not an option? The mother said college was too expensive and that scholarships were typically rewarded only to low-income students that had high academic achievements.

The story left Ila dumbstruck. She had always seen college as a natural next step after high school. She didn’t realize that for other people, it wasn’t an option. “It was eye-opening to me,” she says.

After the conversation with her student’s mother, Ila went home to discuss the incident with her parents. She searched for nonprofits that address low-income students’ needs and provide awareness for options like FAFSA and Cooke’s Foundation Scholarship. She says she couldn’t find an organization that specifically helped low-income students find life-changing resources for helping fund their college tuition.

And so, like any big dreamer, Ila took matters into her own hands and started her own nonprofit: College Pathway.

“When I first wanted to start College Pathway my parents were immediately on board,” says Ila. “They were like, ‘Yes you can do it!’ even though they were a little iffy because none of us had any experience starting a nonprofit. But we all wanted to because my parents knew I was passionate about it.

One of the first challenges Ila faced was finding teachers for her board of directors who would get along together and whose personalities would really help College Pathway. Eventually, her eighth-grade teachers agreed to join as board members. Together with Ila, they began to attend monthly meetings. Ila is now in charge of fundraising and speaking at public events and overseeing the ambassador and scholarship programs.

“We recently implemented a program where we train young students to make changes and how to do projects in the community and amplify College Pathway’s mission,” explains Ila. “I oversee the entire organization and its specific programs. And I also work with my board of directors to track all the legal and fundraising things.”

Finding organizations and representatives to partner with College Pathway became the second challenge. Ila didn’t receive a single response from her first batch of emails asking to team up with her nonprofit.

“I think the reason why a lot of people didn’t respond to my email when College Pathway was in its early stages is because I didn’t have much to back it up,” explains Ila. “I was like, ‘Yes I’ve done this so far, I have this passion—that’s it.’ I didn’t really have anything else to say, ‘And I’ve done this so far also!’ You know?”

When presented with an obstacle Ila did not back down. She took a risk and directly contacted the Georgia Superintendent of Schools, who responded saying that he wanted to meet with her. After that, the opportunities for partnerships were easier to obtain. The meeting with the superintendent provided the opportunities Ila was seeking, but it was her passion that drove her forward and gave her the courage to continue pursuing her big dream.

Ila has presented College Pathway in front of the Georgia Superintendent of Schools along with representatives from the Georgia Department of Education. The superintendent came to Ila’s school to listen to her present College Pathway, their mission, and what they planned to do in the future. They discussed how to maximize College Pathway’s impact, and the superintendent gave Ila contacts who could help her further College Pathway’s goals. Through those contacts, Ila has organized a meeting with the Georgia Board of Education. She’s trying to get viewpoints from different people to help her find better ways to reach out to low-income students.

“I think reaching out to these influential figures will help me implement change,” says Ila. “And we can all work together to implement these different projects. I want to start eventually doing FAFSA workshops that low-income students can attend and learn how to apply for FAFSA during the college application time.”

Ila says that the response to her speaking engagements has helped garner positive support for College Pathway. As a high school student, she’s been able to reach thousands of people and it’s only getting bigger. While cultivating College Pathway, Ila has realized how much privilege she has. She always thought she was just lucky. In her mind, college was the logical next step that she didn’t have to worry about – her parents would help her with costs.

“It made me realize I was living in a bubble,” says Ila. “I wasn’t stepping into people’s shoes. I didn’t realize 1/3 of my school is economically disadvantaged. I have economically disadvantaged friends. A lot of them didn’t even know about resources.”

Ila wants College Pathway to even the playing field and offer resources to everyone regardless of their economic status. She wants every student to have the same opportunities for pursuing higher education. In other words, she wants to give other students the space to have big dreams too.

Ila continues to work with influential leaders, teachers, and organizations to expand College Pathway’s reach. She believes that FAFSA workshops are essential for low-income students to receive the financial resources necessary to attend college. She’s speaking with her principal and county school officials to implement school-wide and statewide FAFSA workshops.

Through College Pathway, Ila is setting the course for equality in education. No matter what the dream, she’s helping facilitate a stronger community. She’s not keeping her big dreams to herself – she’s setting the stage for others to dream big too so the future can have brighter points of light.

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