(Plantation, Fla) June 29, 2017 - Today, DHL and WE announce the winners of the first DHL Youth Volunteer Fellowship Award celebrating exceptional young Americans who are moving the needle on social change. The five inspiring winners from across the country represent outstanding youth who are leading the charge as change-makers through their actions in community service. Through the fellowship fellowship award, the two organizations will help jumpstart these young leaders’ futures by providing them them with the tools and support to continue being community trailblazers through service and action.
Open to youth aged 13 to 18 from Illinois, New York State, Washington State, Minnesota and California, the award required candidates to put forward thoughtful social action plans demonstrating how they seek to make an impact through volunteer service around issues they are passionate about. Winners were handpicked by a judging panel of influential thought and community leaders, led by Greg Hewitt, CEO of DHL Express U.S., Marc Kielburger, co-founder of WE and Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 28 DHL Indy Car driver with Andretti Autosport.
The 2017 DHL Youth Volunteer Fellowship Award winners are:
- Alexander Chiu, 17, Grade 11, New York, New York
Alexander lives in a city with one of the highest homeless populations. As an active member of New York City’s Youth Justice Board, he decided to use his time to advocate for change in policies and regulations that impact homeless youth in the metropolitan area. Through research, interviews with national help organizations and regular visits to shelters, Alexander is working to increase access to temporary housing and eradicate gender and race discrimination that many young people face when seeking shelter services.
- Amelia Yang, 14, Grade 8, Coon Rapids, Minnesota
As an advocate of social issues from mental health to animal rights, Amelia lends her voice to a variety of causes with the hope of increasing awareness and fostering dialogue to create change. After seeing a peer struggle with homelessness, and in an effort to spread positivity throughout her school, Amelia designed a video project where 300 of her peers shared what brought them happiness during difficult times. Through her many projects, Amelia strives to create change one smile at a time.
- Megan Turner, 18, Grade 12, Seattle, Washington
As someone who believes that education is the key to social change, Megan has never taken her education for granted. To help bridge the education gap in her community and build a brighter future for her peers, Megan volunteers her time teaching English and math to immigrants and refugees seeking a better life in Seattle. Megan aspires to become an immigration lawyer for primarily Spanish-speaking immigrants.
- Myreanna Smith, 17, Grade 11, Chicago, Illinois
While travelling in Nicaragua, Myreanna witnessed the global issue of poverty firsthand, motivating her to carry these experiences back home and work to create change around the issue of homelessness in Chicago. Myreanna is now a social advocate for homeless issues and works with a local homeless shelter, creating care packages filled with toiletries, non-perishable food items and notes of kindness.
- Timothy Land, 17, Grade 11, Modesto, California
Passionate about helping others any way he can, Timothy joined his school’s humanitarian club to make a difference locally and globally. Whether collecting books for local California schools or fundraising to help build a health center in Ecuador, Timothy takes simple actions to make life-changing impacts.
The fellowship prize package includes transformative leadership support that will help winners develop their action plans. Through mentorship and service experiences, winners will bring their life-changing ideas to the world stage. The full award includes:
- A ME to WE Youth Trip to Ecuador, where winners will come together to further develop their leadership skills and work side-by-side with people in the community on development projects
- A leadership session with Greg Hewitt, CEO of DHL Express U.S., and Marc Kielburger, co-founder of WE, to learn firsthand from two accomplished business and social leaders
- Mentorship from a WE leadership member who will provide one-on-one support to ensure recipients have all the tools and support necessary to see their action plans through
- An invitation to winners to receive their award in front of thousands of their peers on a WE Day stage in their home state.
“We are excited to celebrate these extraordinary young leaders who have each had a positive, meaningful impact in their communities,” said Greg Hewitt, CEO of DHL Express U.S. “These winners are a reflection of a generation of passionate young people determined to take the lead in improving local and global communities through civic action. We hope their trip to Ecuador will provide them with an indelible learning-and-outreach experience that will show them just how effective they can be in improving lives anywhere in the world.”
“It is an incredible moment to honor our very first group of DHL Youth Fellowship awardees,” said Marc Kielburger, co-founder of WE. “We are thrilled to celebrate five young Americans who are the absolute embodiment of being a leader of today and tomorrow. Each winner has an unwavering commitment to making a lasting impact, whether at home in the U.S. or overseas, and we look forward to working alongside them as they take on their future projects.”
A leader in supporting social change around the world, DHL partners with WE year-round to help make an impact in local and global communities. DHL Express U.S. is the Official Logistics Partner of WE Day, helping to bring the WE Day stage to life in each city on the WE Day U.S. tour. More than 300 DHL employees have volunteered at WE Day events, and now with the expansion of the WE-DHL partnership into the United States, even more DHL employees will have an opportunity to volunteer. Since 2012, as part of its commitment to WE, DHL has shipped to U.S. and Canadian retail markets more than 1.5 million pieces of jewelry handmade by female artisans in Kenya and Ecuador, helping these women earn an income to send their children to school.
For more information about the award, please visit WE.org/dhl.
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About DHL
DHL is the leading global brand in the logistics industry. Our DHL family of divisions offer an unrivalled portfolio of logistics services ranging from national and international parcel delivery, e-commerce shipping and fulfillment solutions, international express, road, air and ocean transport to industrial supply chain management. With about 350,000 employees in more than 220 countries and territories worldwide, DHL connects people and businesses securely and reliably, enabling global trade flows. With specialized solutions for growth markets and industries including technology, life sciences and healthcare, energy, automotive and retail, a proven commitment to corporate responsibility and an unrivalled presence in developing markets, DHL is decisively positioned as “The logistics company for the world”.
DHL is part of Deutsche Post DHL Group. The Group generated revenues of more than 57 billion euros in 2016.
About WE
WE is an organization that brings people together and gives them the tools to change the world. A unique family of organizations, WE is made up of WE Charity, empowering change with resources that create sustainable impact, and ME to WE, a social enterprise that creates socially conscious products and experiences that allow people to do good through their everyday choices. The celebration of that change happens at WE Day – inspiring stadium-sized life-changing events that take place around the world. A global movement of 2.4 million young people strong, youth involved with WE have raised $62 million for more than 2,400 local and global organizations, volunteered 19.9 million hours for local and global causes and collected over 7.6 million pounds of food through service learning programs and campaigns. WE was founded more than 20 years ago by humanitarians, activists and social entrepreneurs, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger. Join the WE movement today at www.we.org
