Luqman 'Luke' Jubair, 22, seen here attending The Alliance of Youth Movements Summit in New York.

Luqman “Luke” Jubair is one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. I actually didn’t know what to expect when I first met this 22-year-old Iraqi man. He grew up in a well-off, well-educated Sunni family of doctors in Hit, about three hours outside of Baghdad, only to have his life turned upside down by war. He had always dreamed of being a doctor. At the height of sectarian violence in 2004, he endured daily threats of kidnapping and assassination going to medical school at the College of Medicine at Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad, in a predominately Shiite area.

Because of what he went through and the violence he saw around him every day, I thought Luke would be bitter or vengeful, but he is nothing of the sort. In 2005, he became a surgery assistant at a hospital in his hometown. Then, during the height of violence in the Anbar Province, he moved to the Al-Ramadi Hospital where the needs were greater. Even though he was helping his people, he still hid his identity from local gangs and militias in the so-called “Red Zone,” where he lives and works.

He tells me calmly and with a smile in his eye, the next year he teamed up with other young doctors and professionals – Sunni, Shiite and Christian – who were dealing with similar fears and encountering Iraqis with limited basic supplies or services. They started a group called, Iraqis Rebuilding Our Country, or IROC. The group reaches out to locals to help them help themselves primarily with language, health and computer education.  On top of his service work with IROC, he also now works at the Al-Kadhimia hospital in Baghdad, where he says he still fears for his life.

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Garrett Gravesen and Kevin Scott started the Global L.E.A.D. program to help students study abroad.

Let’s be honest, if a college student tells his parents he wants to go travel abroad without much structure, mom and dad might have nightmares of drunken nights and gallivanting down the streets of Europe with their credit card. I came across Garrett Gravesen’s idea to change that at the “Power 30 Under 30” awards in Atlanta earlier this year. He and his business partner, Kevin Scott, are trying to tap into college students' basic desire to go overseas and put something impressive on their resumes while helping those who are less fortunate, with their new initiative, Global L.E.A.D. Program.

It takes a lot of chutzpah to say JFK’s vision of the Peace Corp didn’t go far enough, but these guys truly believe they can bring global youth service into this century. They took 100 days to travel Africa to see how they could impact education there without implementing an actual curriculum that they believe too often encourages students to focus on the grade, tangible success or goal rather than the raw abstraction of giving back.

Global L.E.A.D. has a pilot program in the summer of next year in Cape Town, South Africa. Its methodology stems from a Wikipedia-style learning model. If it works, who knows? Perhaps more students could find that education doesn’t only happen inside the classroom or through an internship.

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Phalyn Perry, 16, encourages young people to make better choices by avoiding gang life.

We see lots of stories about the perpetuation of gang violence from generation to generation. It isn't until a member of a new generation stops and says, "enough" that the cycle stops. That's what 16-year-old Phalyn Perry did.

She grew up in the gang neighborhood of the Raymond Avenue Crips in Los Angeles. Her father was an original member of the Crips, involved in violence and selling drugs. He went to prison when she was 10 years old for a 19-year sentence on robbery. Phalyn visits her father in prison and says he has now changed his ways. She hopes she will be able to deliver his message of non-violence outside the prison bars. She says, "He always tells me, 'Bonehead, you're a very intelligent young girl. Don't chase boys, chase your school work because it will all pay off in the long run.'"

Today, she actually chases motivation. As a member of Common Unity Reaching Everyone, or CURE, and A Better L.A., Phayln uses her story to inspire others to block out the negativity and hang with the right crowd like she did. Through weekly community events, she inspires other young people growing up with temptation to join a gang, to also say, "enough."

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Their motto is “Give a year, change the world." I’ve always been intrigued by these 17- to 24-year-olds I’ve run into over the last few years who give a year of domestic service and wear those big red jackets with contagious enthusiasm and pride. Last week I had the privilege of spending time with the passionate young people of City Year in New York and wanted to introduce them to you.

Some call it "the domestic Peace Corps", but the young members of City Year don’t only keep the peace in the urban areas they work in, they educate, inspire and motivate, working as tutors, mentors and role models. In the New York chapter, specifically, they are looking at bleak statistics: 58% of 4th graders are illiterate and half will not graduate from high school. So the corpsmen and women meet those stats with their own numbers: 11,225 children served during in-school and after-school programs, 10,139 gallons of paint used to create murals to refurbish playspaces, and 562,000 hours of time spent transforming communities.

The corps members come from diverse backgrounds. Some defer admission to Ivy League universities. Others grew up in inner cities, inspired by the City Year work in their own classrooms growing up. Falling under the federal umbrella of AmeriCorps, all members take nominal stipends for their volunteer time, but give maximum one-on-one benefits to the ones who need it most.

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