Winnie Phan, 16, educates kids on the importance of staying in school.

Winnie Phan grew up in a troubled home. Her parents didn't support her education or give her the opportunities other kids her age enjoyed. By the time she managed to make it through grade school, she was on the road to becoming a statistic.

California has a 25% high school dropout rate, according to the California Board of Education. Nationwide, the dropout rate is about 31%. Winnie, now a junior, is determined to defy the statistic herself and inspire her contemporaries to do the same.

Winnie started Safe Walks in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, pairing up older kids with younger kids to make sure that everyone gets to and from school safely. “Growing up it was scary to walk home,” the now 16-year-old remembers. Taking the fear out of the commute, Winnie hopes, will get more kids staying in school.

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Jack's Mannequin frontman Andrew McMahon started a foundation to raise awareness for cancer research.

He hustled for years with his band and it finally paid off.

Andrew McMahon and his band Jack’s Mannequin had embarked on their first U.S. headlining tour. In the middle of the tour, Andrew checked into the hospital for what he originally thought was just exhaustion and laryngitis. It was worse. Andrew was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He was 22.

Despite being off the tour, his first album, “Everything in Transit” still sold 250,000 copies. Now, four years later, post stem-cell transplant and chemotherapy, Andrew is in remission and has a new album, “The Glass Passenger.” Now, he’s headlining a group he never thought he’d be fronting, the Dear Jack Foundation, to raise money and awareness for cancer research.

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Kelly Evans, 23, reports on the economy for the Wall Street Journal.

Like many families, Kelly Evans' considered talking about money taboo. To them, financial news seemed lofty and inaccessible.

Fast-forward to 2009 and you'll find her talking about money everyday as an economics reporter for the Wall Street Journal. “Its my job to take wonky and opaque figures and make them understandable,” she says. When she started 18 months ago, there were only rumblings of a recession. Now, this 23-year-old is pulling long days and nights breaking down staggering numbers to connect the dots for the rest of us. “I take really jargon-heavy reports and turn them into ‘No one is ordering U.S. products. So that’s why U.S. manufacturing jobs are being cut. So that’s why your cousin is out of a job.’”

Kelly sees the extreme shift in the economy firsthand, and knows that her generation is feeling it big time. She advises young people to focus on skills, rather than resume-building. “The people that are thinking ahead are those who will emerge on top when things come back around, which they will.”

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McKay Hatch, 16, encourages children and adults to avoid using profanity.

&*$%! Yup, it’s pretty common to hear four-letter words in school hallways. Some kids want to be cool by cussing like their friends. Some hear it from their parents. But, McKay Hatch didn’t want to hear it or say it.

When McKay was in 8th grade, he asked his friends not to cuss around him. Then he started the No Cussing Club. It started with 35 members, then it grew to more than 20,000 members - kids and adults, from 50 states and 30 countries. The reaction has been mixed. His site has been hacked, his family has received bomb and death threats. Prostitutes have even shown up to his house! But, his mission of civility keeps him going.

“It shows how much impact words have. Someone sent me an e-mail and said, 'Your words become your action, action becomes your behavior, your behavior becomes your character, character becomes destiny.' I hope that this brings greater understanding among people to show that words have meaning and can affect where you go in life,” McKay, 16, says. Last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared the first week in March as No Cussing Week.

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NBA star Dwyane Wade is the national spokesman for National Recess Week.

You already know him as an NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist. You already know that Dwyane Wade still gets up after falling down seven times. But, the 27-year-old’s acts of kindness often go unnoticed.

Last Christmas, he made headlines when he bought a home for a Florida woman whose nephew accidentally burned her house down. But, the kindness isn’t random for the Miami Heat star who founded Wade’s World, an organization that helps underprivileged kids. Once again, he has teamed up with National Recess Week as the national spokesperson to encourage young people to foster a sense of community and sportsmanship.

Dwyane’s NBA bio says he wants to leave the world a better place. When I met him, he told me he told me that things he wants the world to know him for haven’t been accomplished yet. “But, they will happen,” Dwyane assures me.

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