Discus Award Winner
Winners Gallery
PHOTOS
Christopher Yao
10th Grade, NY
ATTRIBUTES
Community Service
In 2007, I founded Kids Change the World with a goal to unite the current youth generation to make the world a better place. The program provides youth-led programs with start-up grants, legal guidance, website domains, start-up grants, and other grassroots services. The award-winning program has also provided more than 50 cleft-lip surgeries to children who otherwise would never have a chance to speak properly. I have collected over 1,500 cards and care packages for troops and hospitalized children. This year, the program will award 50 young people doing good things in their communities with the 2011 Isaac Lou Award and will distribute over $2,000 in grants. Impacting more than 81 countries around the world, the program is made of more than 19,000 dedicated volunteers and supporters in 34 countries around the world.
Academics
I am currently taking two Advanced Placement courses in my sophomore year of high school. In 9th grade, I placed fourth in the National Latin Exam and earned four college engineering credits from the prestigious Rochester Institute of Technology. The same year, I was awarded “Achievement and Excellence” in the Living Environment. In eighth grade, I participated in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth Talent Search by taking the SAT and scored well above the average graduating senior that year and earned High Honors with Distinction in mathematics. In seventh grade, I was first place in my school class in the American Mathematics Competition 8.
Technology
I believe that technology is one of the world’s most powerful resources. I created Education Preparation, www.eduprep.kidschangeamerica.org, a website that provides free educational videos and materials in mathematics, science, English, and social studies in levels ranging from kindergarten to college. The online program has been used at the Daos Children’s Centre in Mombasa, Kenya for more than 250 students, at various schools in rural China, and around the world! Children, especially girls, that would not normally have access to a proper education can now pursue their dreams in receiving a post-secondary education and hopefully make more educated decisions in life.
