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Editorial: Terrific teens in our midst: The 2017-18 Leadership Team

When we were teenagers, how did we think about our future lives?

Some of us looked in the mirror with the optimism only youth can inspire and saw a future rock star. Others of us saw ourselves as entrepreneurs, car mechanics, teachers, lawyers, journalists, doctors, cosmetologists, scientists.

At 18, how many of us thought, "I want a career where making the world a better place is my primary focus"?

In Thursday's Daily Herald we introduced you to the 2017-18 Leadership Team, high school students who have embraced volunteering as a life choice, and who think like that. They not only volunteer, they lead - organizing, publicizing, recruiting and fundraising for causes that matter to them.

And when you read their essays, over and over again you find a similar thread: Volunteering has awakened something in me that I like about myself. I can lead, I can inspire, I can make a difference.

What these teens say is that whatever they end up doing in life, it can't be for profit alone. While their careers won't necessarily be in the nonprofit sector, they are determined to find ways to do public good in whatever line of work they choose.

To wit: Moved by the suicide of a 12-year-old who was cyberbullied, Trisha Prabhu of Neuqua Valley High School developed an app she calls "ReThink." The free app uses filtering technology to stop an adolescent about to post an offensive message - by asking him or her to reconsider. They do - 93 percent of the time.

Prabhu, whose ReThink has been much heralded, has a future in technology waiting for her. But that isn't enough. "Innovation coupled with social entrepreneurship appeals to me," she writes. "I can harness the power of technology to impact lives by building and developing financially sustainable organizations that are more focused on social good and missions than margins."

AnnaLeah Esp of Rosary High School, formed a charity called Live Mobile, to help children in an impoverished Peruvian village get needed therapeutic care. Fundraising has enable them to hire a full-time therapist, build a new therapy center and provide equipment and toys. Now, AnnaLeah will study to become a Global Physician Assistant, "because community service is a part of my life, along with my desire to study science and pediatrics," she writes.

Trisha and AnnaLeah are two of more than 150 Leadership Team winners and honorable mentions, who believe that in helping others they have found their better selves. Doesn't it make you proud to know these amazing teens are our kids?

  Members of the Lake County 2017-18 Leadership Team express interest in careers that make a difference and in volunteering as a way of life. Steve Lundy/slundy@dailyherald.com
  Members of the DuPage County 2017-18 Leadership Team express interest in careers that make a difference and in volunteering as a way of life. Bev Horne/bhorne@dailyherald.com
  Members of the Fox Valley 2017-18 Leadership Team express interest in careers that make a difference and in volunteering as a way of life. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
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