Events
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Khareem Oliver
Pet owners often think of their dogs and cats as their kids. So when Scruffy or Fluffy is lost, it can wreak havoc on owners’ lives. Khareem Oliver has seen this firsthand. For the past 10 years, he’s volunteered at animal-rescue organizations and noticed that many animals did not have identification that could be used…
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A’Dorian Murray-Thomas
A’Dorian Murray-Thomas has used her own experience with tragedy to help other young girls triumph over hard times. When she was 7 years old, her father was killed in a robbery in her hometown of Newark, N.J. Because she had a community of people around her pushing her to be her best self despite her…
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Toluwanimi Obiwole
Toluwanimi Obiwole lets her poetry show her strength. Toluwanimi was selected as Denver’s first youth poet laureate in 2015. “The poets teaching me how to be even braver in my writing are Warsan Shire, Nayyirah Waheed and Suzi Q. Smith,” she told The Root. “They’re all unafraid to be vulnerable in their writing, yet never…
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Olivia Russo-Hood
Even after tragedy struck Olivia Russo-Hood’s family, she started looking for ways to help others. After a massive flood in Austell, Ga., destroyed her family’s home, Olivia noticed how many people came to her family’s rescue. So she knew it was time to pay it forward. “If I hadn’t received help, I would still feel…
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Destiny Watford
Destiny Watford is the accidental environmental activist America needs right now. Her quest for clean air all started when she was a senior in high school after she saw a play about a small community whose lives were at risk because of a polluted hot spring. The play’s setting mirrored Curtis Bay, an industrial neighborhood…
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Nicole O’Dell
Nicole O’Dell talks as effortlessly about biotechnology as she would if she were talking about what she ate for dinner. In 2015, she won first place at the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers’ national competition. Her project analyzed the effects of low-dose radiation and whether X-rays from security scanning machines affect materials…
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Anicca Harriot
Anicca Harriot dabbed her way to internet stardom. But unlike other folks who often just dab to celebrate a moment, Anicca put pencil to paper and calculated the angle of her dab by hand. She posted the angle, 31.70 degrees to be exact, on Twitter, and the tweet has since gained more than 27,000 retweets…
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Moziah Bridges
At 15, Moziah Bridges is already the best dressed in the room, brightening up an event with his colorful, handmade bow ties. Moziah, the CEO of Mo’s Bows, has been running his six-figure business with his mom and grandmother in Memphis, Tenn., since 2011. “I like to wear bow ties because they make me look…
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Michaela DePrince
Imagine opening your email and seeing Beyoncé’s name in your inbox. That’s what happened to ballerina Michaela DePrince last year. After laughing off the email and sending it to her publicist, the next thing she knew, she was on set in New Orleans, choreographing the music video for “Freedom” on Queen Bey’s epic opus, Lemonade.…
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Simone Manuel
Call her “Swimone,” if you’d like. At 20 years old, Simone Manuel became the first black woman to win Olympic gold in an individual swimming event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, setting an Olympic record. She also won a gold medal in the 4-x-100 meter medley and silver medals in the 50-meter…