What might surprise some is all three projects are largely being funded by teen students.

Meet the new philanthropists - Teens, teens with innate computer networking skills, affluent family connections and the one-click ability to bear witness to global poverty.

"Their sense of justice is different than ours was growing up," said Sue Schwartzman of the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, whose youth foundation gave away $204,000 in global charity in June. A portion funded the train station schools in India.

"I think a lot of affluent teens understand that their lives are great and when they see these pictures from around the world it's not OK. They want to make other young people's lives OK, too," Schwartzman said.

And the nature of teen activism is becoming increasingly global. It's a direct result of our increased ability to communicate outside of our regular social circles, our easier access to global travel, and more contact with international students in schools and universities.

This generation of teen high scholars became painfully aware of global politics as middle scholars on 9/11. They are also the first set of students to be taught by teachers who were required to do community service in order to get a high school diploma. That lesson of giving back, or paying it forward, is becoming part of their psyche.

From MySpace's "One" clickable charity campaign to Al Gore's inconvenient truths or U2 frontman Bono's Product Red push for Africa, this generation is steeped in a popular culture of giving to create change.

I think 9/11 showed teens that something is wrong with our culture, that we can't solve the world's problems anymore with individual competition and self-interest and teens want to get involved, make a differnce, create change.

Borrowing from the simple church collection plate strategy, some students started collecting dollars in their own school and neighboring school districts to raise money for global causes. In 18 months, they raised nearly $26,000 from students, enough to build a classroom for Kenyan children who were going to school in a horse barn, put 60 desks in an empty classroom in Malawi, buy two milk cows for a Kenyan orphanage and ship 452 bicycles to Africa so children wouldn't have to walk for miles to get to school.

This year, some Northern California students helped prevent young girls from a life of sexual slavery in Nepal. They raised enough to buy 20 piglets for the Nepal Youth Opportunity Foundation, which gives parents the animals to try to dissuade them from selling their girls to brothels. Once the piglets mature, the parents can sell the pig for $50 - as much or more than sex traffickers would pay for their daughters. Kind of hard to believe this still goes on but it does.

In another project in Nepal, teen students finished construction on a three-room school for 84 primary students who were attending class under a tree. It's astonishing to see what happens when the students realize that their choices are between the regular or video iPod, between Juicy jeans or True Religion, and then they meet people who have to decide which child to feed

While building the classroom for Naro Moru Secondary School in Kenya, the teen students visited the sprawling Kibera slums in Nairobi. A Kenyan youth led them over a gutter and through a hole to host them in his 10-by-10 foot wooden shack. "I was worried about how the American kids would react," said Macheru Karuku, director of SEANET, the Kenyan nonprofit that oversaw the school construction project. "I was encouraged when I talked with them later and they realized how lucky they were to be living in good houses back in America, adding that they would never forget what they had seen," he said.

Teen giving is expanding beyond the privilege of the privileged. This year, the John and Marcia Goldman Foundation of Brentwood, California, gave $10,000 to Eastside College Preparatory School in East Palo Alto, California, to start Project Give. The middle school students, the majority of whom come from low-income families, spent the year researching nonprofits before deciding to parse the money among a handful of Bay Area charities dedicated to cancer, AIDS and leukemia prevention. The sixth-graders were inspired to host an auction and buffet and recycle cans to raise an additional $350. Project Give was such a hit that the students are already geared up to fundraise again when school starts.

Their next big cause? Africa.

Get involved: Sustainable Environment and Agriculture Network (SEANET) Nonprofit based in Nanyuki, Kenya, responsible for building Naro Moru Secondary School with funding and labor provided by teens through the One Dollar for Life program. Contact Macheru Karuku, karukum1@yahoo.com

A Real Inspirational Hero

When you drive by the campus of De La Salle high school in northern California, you don't see many signs of the football powerhouse this campus houses. The unassuming school grounds, along with the very modest Spartan football field, makes it seem like this could be any high school in the nation, but it's not. De La Salle holds the record for most consecutive games won (151 games in 13 years) and continues to win games playing the nation's top elite football powerhouses such as Long Beach Poly, California; Kahuku High School, Hawaii; and John Curtis Christian High School, Louisiana.

De La Salle continues to rank among the top high school football programs in all the polls and what the team lacks in size they more then make up for in precise execution. What makes this west coast football program most remarkable is head coach Bob Ladouceur. A calm, unassuming coach that seems at peace with himself, he coaches his players in manner unlike any other coach in the history of football. Coach 'Lad' focuses on a players strengths and builds the character of each boy, introducing love for other teammates, perseverance against huge odds, and tolerance of homosexuality. This remarkable man is the very reason Spartan football is such a huge success.

De La Salle is a Catholic Jesuit high school with conservative values and ideology. Students usually go on to prestigious universities and the alumni consists of some of the best athletes and scholars the nation has to offer. The doctrine concentrates on building character and encouraging intelligence. Attending De La Salle is an honor. It's a private school and attracts the best students the Bay Area region has to offer. Students carry the Spartan tradition with pride knowing they're getting one of the best educations at one of the most elite high schools in the nation.

*Sexual orientation of athletes is not implied.

Bob Ladouceur came to De La Salle in 1979. At the time the humble football program didn't even rank. Coach Lad brought his own brand of coaching turning selfish teen boys into selfless teen role models. He has created a culture based on timeless values where teen boys hold themselves and each other accountable. The players don't fight to win, they fight for a belief in what being a Spartan stands for. "Kid's respect true humility and that you stand for something more than winning," Coach Lad notes. "They'll fight for you and your program if you stand for more than that. It all boils down to what you believe in as a person, and I'm talking about how life should be lived and how people should be treated. Teen boys understand all that. It's a whole package of things that have nothing to do with standing in front of a team with a piece of chalk. You can know how to block and what play to call, but it has no meaning unless the kids know who you are. Our boys fight for what we stand for."

Coach Lad is the only person I know that can hush 800 boys in a all-school assembly just by walking up to the podium. He's an icon even though he doesn't even clearly understand why. "To this day he doesn't know who he is" his assistant coach says. "That's the funny part. That's what makes him who he is though."

Coaches across the nation always want to know the secret to winning so many games, but there is no secret. There's nothing that can be manufactured, packaged, and distributed. It's a thousand different threads wrapped around a fundamental truth. De La Salle doesn't consistently win because of anything Coach Lad does. They win because of who he is. He has broken the game down to its DNA and discovered the secret to success. It's simple but it's not easy.

It's a lot of hard physical work. It's getting up at 5 A.M. to get to school on time to lift weights. But what's even more difficult is getting a player to understand it's more than just football. Along with the physical demands of training, Coach Lad trains the mind of the athlete. He makes players step back and examine their relationships. On and off the field. To Coach Lad this isn't just a job, it's a life mission. "I don't even know if I like football that much," he says. But when all eleven of his players are playing as one, not for themselves but for that person next to him, and they're playing with passion and every ounce of effort they can summon, it can become a symphony of male adolescence.

The De La Salle Spartan football team is the most publicized team in the country. The practices are open to any player that feels compelled to practice with the best. What is kept secret, however, is the team meetings that are held at different player's homes during the week. Parents host a dinner and then the team usually goes to the garage to hold their weekly team meeting. Not a whole lot is known what goes on behind the closed doors (team members are sworn to secrecy) but what little is known is teammates prepare for that weeks game, expressing the desire to play hard and to purposely select another team member and promise that they will accomplish a set of goals specifically for that player. These meetings can get emotional, with boys usually getting watery eyes and expressing their love for their fellow teammates. The meetings form a bond so strong it allows the team to meld into one giant force, ready to take on whatever gets thrown their way, regardless of a teammates race, strength, or even sexuality (although a conservative Catholic, Coach Lad has repeatedly shown his support and acceptance of the possibility one of his players could be gay. Every player is an equal, every player matters).

No one really knows exactly what makes the Spartan football program such a success but one thing is certain; boys graduate from this school a much better person. They don't just graduate with a diploma, they transform into young athlete/scholars with an understanding of what it means to be an outstanding role model in today's society. Needless to say the De La Salle program is an inspiration and a desire that all high school athletic programs reexamine what it means to be a real winner since they have the power to shape the youth of future generations to come.

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