I’ll anecdote one story.

This girl, Maggie Doyne, is a bright high school senior - great grades, varsity athlete - decides to take a gap year. Travels to Nepal, meets a girl, hikes three days to get to her village - decides to stay in this village because the main form of recreation for the children there is chipping away at rocks near a river.

So she takes the $5,000 she raised baby-sitting to build an orphanage there.  She then flies back home and raises $25,000 more to build a school. She wins $20,000 from CosmoGirl and then $100,000 from DoSomething and built a bigger school. She is essentially the founder, principal, care-taker of this school before she even went to college.The plan is to expand the school from 220 to 300 and to also provide health and dental care.

Her life right now?  She once had an infected tooth and because she couldn’t get to a dentist, she got someone to pull it out with a chisel and pliers.  That’s hard-core.

That’s crazy - but it’s also passion.

I don’t think I did her story justice. Just read the article.