Dream Big

around two years ago

i was wandering aimlessly i struggled in

my academics

and i had a hard time understanding

where i belonged

i just could not figure out how i was

going to make an impact on my community

and i didn’t have big dreams about my

future

and that’s when i got the opportunity to

volunteer with an

organization where i got to work with

kids from immigrant and refugee families

to engage with the students and help

them immerse into the community

and through this experience i saw

inequity in education

for the very first time

in talking with the students i realized

that there was a considerable gap

in understanding educational

opportunities

for example the kids i was working with

had never had a parent go to college

so they did not think it was an option

for them either

and as i started engaging with more and

more students

i realized that this problem was

widespread across

all demographics and communities

after further research i learned that

this problem is called

the achievement gap according to the

center for education policy analysis

at stanford university this achievement

gap

draws attention to the significant

disparity in

academic performance among different

groups of students based explicitly

on racial ethnic and socioeconomic

background

it highlights the inadequacies of an

inequitable education system

that cannot provide equal opportunities

for all kids to thrive and succeed

and this gap is not due to inherent

differences in the student capability

instead it is due to the obstacles and

conditions

that some groups of students face during

their educational pursuit

for example for one in every five

students

in the united states who live in poverty

college

one of the clearest paths to a brighter

future is

all but attainable

i want all students to have the power to

dream of a better future

and i wanted to work towards equipping

them with the tools they needed to do so

it became my new dream to play a role in

making the world a more equitable place

so after discussing this issue with a

few close friends

i co-founded the youth executive

leadership program

an international non-profit organization

focused on helping underrepresented

students learn vocational skills

and fight against education and equity

we started with a dream

of helping even just one kid and nearly

two years later

we have helped over a thousand kids from

all over the world

we wanted to inspire kids to achieve

their dreams by teaching them leadership

and public speaking skills

and mentoring them individually

so we started off with mentorship

workshops where he brought in

high profile leaders to share their

experiences

over this past year we have worked with

non-profits and organizations all over

the world

including the houston independent school

district

we have created mentorship programs in

countries such as uganda

and digital curriculums for girls in

rural india and china

we have raised over three thousand

dollars

for girls education in india which will

go towards sending 16 girls to school

this year

i have had the unique opportunity

to work with the most brilliant students

with the most diverse

backgrounds and get to watch them grow

into

confident kids ready to be leaders and

dreamers in the world

when i am conducting my workshops or

programs

i feel that empowering other students

has given me a vital purpose that i

could not find before

and suddenly i did not feel lost anymore

after starting this organization i

improved drastically in my academics

and i became more focused and motivated

to make a change in my community

suddenly i felt unchained in the sense

that i started believing in myself

and i saw the world from a different

lens

a lens in which anything is possible

as a high school student managing a

non-profit is a big responsibility

my co-founder and i have spent hundreds

of hours into creating curriculums

conducting our programs and working with

other nonprofits

from the very creation of this nonprofit

i have been so

passionate about this even though it is

a lot of hard work

and sleepless nights it didn’t take away

from the fact that when i woke

up every single day i knew that this is

precisely what i wanted to do

and that i loved doing it i

am a dreamer and every single one of you

should be too

so what is a dream

a dream is something that inspires you

to bring an idea that only you have

into this world to a dreamer the word

impossible

doesn’t exist because everything is

possible to them

dreamers don’t just envision things they

put them into action

they get out of their comfort zone and

push

the boundaries and they don’t dismiss

even the wildest of dreams

and these qualities of hard work

persistence

and the relentless pursuit of dreams are

what set apart

dreamers from the regular crowd

there is a four-step process to being a

dreamer

step one visualize your goals and dreams

write them out and stick them on your

wall or create a dream board to remind

you what you are working towards

every single day studies show

that when you visualize your dreams you

are more likely to achieve them

step two take action

dreamers don’t just get opportunities

handed to them

they create their own opportunities and

paths

you’ve got to stop procrastinating and

immerse yourself into your dreams

step 3 seek out inspiration from those

who have succeeded

although your ideas may be very unique

it is always beneficial to talk to

people who have done similar things

and learn from their mistakes and

experiences

and lastly step four

take feedback the right way no matter

how amazing or advanced you may be

there is always room for improvement

the only way to improve for the future

is to work on your past mistakes

a quick disclaimer bringing dreams to

life is not

impossible but it will take an immense

amount of hard work and dedication

you will have to make sacrifices and you

will have to get uncomfortable

but don’t let that stop you the number

one reason

why people don’t chase after their

dreams is due to fear

fear failure or fear of rejection

there will always be a million and one

reasons to not chase after your dreams

and it is easy to succumb to that fear

failure is an essential key to success

because it teaches you things that

success never can

for example one of our projects as a

part of the organization

is the audio video curriculum when my

team and i

had created our audio video curriculum

we had spent

countless hours working with specialists

and professors

filming our videos and designing our

worksheets

but when we pitched it to nonprofits

every single one rejected our curriculum

it felt like a kick to the gut because

of all of the hard work that had went

into this project

however we reached back out to these

non-profits and asked them

what went wrong and what we could do to

improve and they shared with us that our

curriculum

didn’t fit the cultural expectations of

the girls

girls in the specific region were

expected to remain obedient to their

families

and get married at earlier ages we

needed to take this

aspect of the culture into consideration

and adapt our curriculum

to better fit the needs of our audience

and

after we made these changes the very

first non-profit that we pitched to

took us up on our offer and we learned a

valuable lesson

to always take cultural expectations

into consideration

when working internationally

don’t be afraid to fail big

the important thing is to fail forward

learn and grow from those failures

as eleanor roosevelt once said

the future belongs to those who believe

in the beauty of their dreams

if you are in the same spot that i was

in two years ago

just know that there’s always a light at

the end of the tunnel

so dream big believe in your dream and

pursue your dream relentlessly

i am on a journey to empower other

students to dream

my story as a dreamer is just beginning

and i have so much left to do

i want to challenge each one of you here

today

to ask yourself what am i doing today

that will help me achieve my dreams