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

{{}}

大约两年前

，我漫无目的地游荡，

在学业

上苦苦挣扎，很难理解自己

的归属。

就在那时，我有机会在

一个

组织做

志愿者

在与学生交谈的时间里，我

意识到在理解教育机会方面存在相当大的差距

，

例如与我一起工作的孩子

从来没有父母上过大学，

所以他们也不认为这对他们来说是一个选择

，当我开始 与越来越多的学生接触后，

我意识到这个问题在

所有人口统计和社区中都很普遍，

经过进一步研究，我了解到

这

根据斯坦福大学教育政策分析中心的说法，这个问题被称为成绩差距

这种成绩

差距

引起了人们对

明确

基于种族和社会经济

背景的不同学生群体之间学业成绩的显着差异的关注

它突出了不公平教育的不足之处

系统不能

为所有孩子提供平等的成长和成功机会

，这种差距不是由于

学生能力的固有差异，

而是由于

某些学生群体在求学过程中面临的障碍和条件，

例如

在美国，每五个生活在贫困

大学的学生

通向更光明未来的最清晰途径之一

几乎是可以实现的

我希望所有学生都有能力

梦想更美好的未来

，我想努力为

他们配备工具 他们需要这样做，

这成为我的新梦想 在

使世界变得更加公平方面发挥作用，

因此在与几个亲密的朋友讨论了这个问题后，

我共同创立了青年行政

领导力计划，这

是一个国际非营利组织，

致力于帮助代表性不足的

学生学习职业技能

并与教育和公平作斗争

我们最初的梦想

是帮助一个孩子，近

两年后，

我们已经帮助了来自世界各地的一千多个

孩子 我们从辅导讲习班开始，

在过去的一年里，他邀请

了知名领导者分享他们的

经验

我们与世界

各地的非营利组织和组织合作，

包括休斯顿独立学

区

我们在乌干达等国家创建了辅导计划

我们有印度和中国农村女孩的数字课程 我已经

为印度的女童教育筹集了 3000 多美元，今年

将有 16 名女童上学

成为世界上的领导者和梦想家

当我举办我的研讨会或

项目时

我觉得赋予其他学生

权力给了我一个我以前无法找到的重要目标

突然间

我开始这个组织后不再感到

迷茫 我在 我和我的学业

变得更加专注和积极

地改变我的社区

突然间我感到不受束缚，

因为我开始相信自己

，我从不同的

角度看待世界作为高中生，一切皆有可能

管理

非营利组织是一项重大责任，

我和我的联合创始人花了数百

个小时来创建课程，以

开展我们的

从这个非营利组织的创建开始，

我就与其他非营利组织合作，我一直

对此充满热情，尽管这

是很多艰苦的工作

和不眠之夜，但这并没有消除这样

一个事实，即当我

每天醒来时，我 知道这

正是我想做

的，我喜欢这样

做 这个世界对梦想家来说 不可能这个词

不存在，因为

对

他们来说一切

皆有可能 梦想

和这些勤奋的品质

坚持不懈

和对梦想的不懈追求是

梦想家与普通

人群的区别 成为梦想家的四个

步骤 第一步将您的目标形象化

把它们写下来贴在

墙上，或者做一个梦想板来提醒

你每天都在努力做什么

研究表明

，当你想象你的梦想时，你

更有可能实现它们

第二步 采取行动

把机会

交给他们

他们创造自己的机会和

道路

你必须停止拖延，

让自己沉浸在梦想中

第 3 步 从成功的人那里寻找灵感

尽管你的想法可能非常

独特 与人交谈总是有益的

谁做过类似的事情

并从他们的错误和

经验中吸取教训

，最后第四步

以正确的方式获得反馈无论

你多么出色或先进，

总是有改进的余地，

为未来改进的唯一方法

就是为你的过去工作

错误 快速免责声明 将梦想变为

现实并非

不可能，但这需要您付出巨大

的努力和奉献精神

做出牺牲，你

将不得不感到不舒服，

但不要让它阻止你

人们不追逐

梦想的第一大原因是

害怕失败或害怕被拒绝

，总会有一百万零一个

理由 不要追逐你的梦想

，很容易屈服于恐惧

失败是成功的关键，

因为它教会了你

成功永远不可能

的事情例如我们作为

组织一部分的项目之一

是音频视频课程当我的

团队

我创建了我们的音频视频课程，

我们花了

无数时间与专家

和教授一起

拍摄我们的视频并设计我们的

工作表，

但是当我们将其推销给非营利组织时，

每个人都拒绝了我们的课程，

这感觉就像是在踢肠子，

因为所有 为这个项目付出了辛勤的工作，

但是我们联系了这些

非营利组织，询问他们

出了什么问题，我们可以做些什么来

改进，他们表示 我们认为我们的

课程

不符合女孩的文化期望

特定地区的女孩被

期望继续服从她们的

家庭

并早早结婚 我们

需要考虑到这

方面的文化

并调整我们的课程

为了更好地满足我们观众的需求，

在我们做出这些改变之后，

第一个非营利组织

接受了我们的提议，我们学到了

宝贵的一课

，

在国际

工作时始终考虑文化期望 害怕失败

重要的是向前失败

从失败中学习和成长，

正如埃莉诺·罗斯福曾经说过

的

那样，

如果你和我两年前在同一个地方，未来属于那些相信梦想之美的人

知道隧道尽头总有一盏灯

所以梦想大相信你的梦想并

不懈地追求你的梦想

我正在为他人赋能

学生们梦想

我作为梦想家的故事才刚刚开始

，我还有很多事情要做