茄子视频

Angela Choi鈥檚 idea for a youth caregiver network in Detroit came from her experience juggling school and medical care for her younger sister, who has a chronic autoimmune disorder. 

Titi Adams wanted to help others with disaster recovery after her own family struggled to get federal aid following last year鈥檚 tornado in Cypress, Texas. 

For Parv Mehta, years of computer science classes sparked his desire to teach kids in Washington state about the dangers of artificial intelligence and deepfakes. 

And Jackson Simmons-Furlati鈥檚 passion project of buying a hydroponic planter for his California high school turned into a mission of supplying fresh salads to schools across his community.

These four teens were recently awarded fellowships, under a new program from the national nonprofit . For the 2025-26 school year, 100 teams of five participants each will receive up to $7,500 to address real-world problems in their communities. The 500 fellows, ages 14 to 24, will implement their projects during the next school year, with the help of a mentor. 

The program was piloted in a couple of states in recent years, but this is the first time it鈥檚 been offered to students nationwide, said Beverly Sanford, the institute’s vice president. The 500 students come from 27 states and the District of Columbia, and a second cohort will be selected for the 2026-27 school year.

鈥淭hese are big, ambitious efforts, and we think they鈥檙e really going to both bear fruit for their communities and help cultivate a new generation of leaders,鈥� Sanford said.

Here鈥檚 what four of the fellows have come up with:

Angela Choi, 17

Junior at Greenhills School, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Angela and her team created the Youth Caregiver Action Network to help students in the Detroit area who are also caretakers for an ill family member.

It wasn鈥檛 uncommon for Angela to miss crucial study hours or class time as one of the main caregivers for her 14-year-old sister, who has autoimmune encephalitis, a condition that causes neurologic disorders. Angela helps her parents take care of her sister when she needs to go to the emergency room or has emotional outbursts.

鈥淚鈥檝e had to navigate the pressure between being a caregiver and a student at the same time, without any kind of tangible support,鈥� she said. 鈥淸People have] kind of treated me as a way, or as a tool, to make my sister get better 鈥� not as a teen who’s going through a challenge as well. So that’s how this project started.鈥�

When Angela discovered the fellowship a week before the application deadline, she didn鈥檛 know any peers who had a similar caregiving experience. But when she posted a request to student groups on social media, she found other students across the U.S. who were as passionate about the topic as she was. Four of them are now members of her Carnegie fellowship team.

All fellows met face to face in July to start their project. Each team receives a coach from the program and has to identify a mentor in their community. Angela chose the Detroit Health Department because it has the capacity to reach more young caregivers, she said. 

Angela鈥檚 project includes three branches: mental health support, educational equity and civic empowerment. Her team will use some of the Carnegie grant to buy and distribute mental health kits with small gifts and local resources to youth who are caregivers at home. Research that children who care or provide emotional support for a family member have an increased risk for mental health issues.

Because young caregivers spend their time supporting others instead of focusing on education, Angela鈥檚 team also plans to work with local schools to discuss accommodations like tutoring or testing assistance. For the project鈥檚 third branch, the team wants to help caregivers with responsibilities like voting or navigating insurance and finances.

鈥淭his is something that’s definitely become my passion recently, because I wanted to go into the medical field, because my sister’s sick and all,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut if these kinds of [issues] are not really addressed 鈥� if I can’t even be considered as someone to receive help and support 鈥� the medical field is really nothing to me.鈥�

Titi Adams, 17

Senior at Cypress Ranch High School, Cypress, Texas

Titi had already started a nonprofit that provided aid to Nigerian families when she discovered the Carnegie fellowship. She decided to help her local community with an issue that鈥檚 become more prevalent in recent years: natural disaster recovery.

Titi was 13 when wreaked havoc across Texas in 2021, causing millions to lose power and roughly 200 deaths. Last year, a tore through her own neighborhood. She said her parents are still fighting to receive a check owed to them from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairs.

The disasters and her parents鈥� struggle inspired her to create a project to educate citizens about community recovery resources and the FEMA financial aid process. Titi said her team wants to focus their efforts on low-income and underserved communities that are than their affluent neighbors.

鈥淣ot getting the checks you鈥檙e supposed to get was the first [thing] we felt we could actually maybe do something about,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to help people advocate for themselves and realize that they do have options in regards to FEMA.鈥�

Titi said her team hopes to reach at least 200 people during the next school year by producing pamphlets, flyers and digital campaigns in partnership with schools and local nonprofits. 

She said she thought her project idea might be too niche 鈥� until a devastating flood in central Texas killed , including 35 children, on July 4. 

鈥淲hen we saw people鈥檚 response, it validated us that maybe this is actually a problem and we can make a difference,鈥� she said.

Parv Mehta, 17

Senior at Eastlake High School, Sammamish, Washington

Parv had been passionate about computer science for years. But when ChatGPT was released in 2022, his interest shifted to tech policy and the ethical use of artificial intelligence. 

As software became more and more sophisticated, Parv said, he was increasingly aware of the potential for problems such as 鈥� videos, audio or images that seem real but have been manipulated by AI. Since 2019, 47 states have implemented laws addressing deepfakes, according to a national . 

Parv鈥檚 project aims to educate youth on AI, deepfakes and other digital media through hands-on workshops and teacher curriculum. He wants to focus on students who are Black, Indigenous and people of color because they often attend schools with less AI education than their white peers.

鈥淲e decided to specialize in BIPOC communities because we see the need there the most, even though everyone should be AI and deepfake-literate,鈥� he said. 

The team plans to partner with schools and community nonprofits to offer in-person workshops taught by Parv and other members starting this fall. They eventually want to create a curriculum to help teachers bring AI education into the classroom. 

鈥淲e put in a metric about how many people we want to impact. We said 75 people in person and then over 200 people online. But to me, this fellowship is about making as much impact as possible,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to make sure that almost every kid knows about AI in Washington in five years. We鈥檙e going to work really hard to get there.”

Jackson Simmons-Furlati, 16

Sophomore at Dos Pueblos Senior High School, Goleta, California

For years, Jackson has raised money for his local food bank, but he recently became interested in inexpensive ways to provide families with fresh, healthy food. Last year, he used his own money to buy a hydroponic garden for his high school. It鈥檚 an 11-foot tower that grows produce vertically, without the need for soil.

Jackson said the logistics of installing a hydroponic tower next to his high school鈥檚 cafeteria was challenging, but the district eventually approved it with the support of his principal. 

Between January and the end of the school year in the spring, he was able to grow and harvest enough vegetables to create about 100 salads a week. Now, Jackson and his team will be using Carnegie fellowship funds to expand the project to other schools in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. About half of districts in the state have at least one school garden, according to the .

鈥淚鈥檝e been reaching out to other schools in my area, and I鈥檝e been talking to an elementary school that has been pretty interested in installing half-towers 鈥� since the kids are tiny,鈥� he said. “The Carnegie grant will be used to buy saplings for the towers.鈥�

Jackson said the project isn鈥檛 just about providing fresh food, but also limiting plastic use. The salads he made during the school year were served without using any plastic materials, and his team plans to continue the trend at other buildings. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e just trying to grow and trying to expand,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hich is great, especially with the Carnegie grant.鈥�

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how The 74鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.