Matt Certner, 18, founded the Sports Clinic for Children with Special Needs.

Mikey and Matt were best friends. They vacationed together, they played sports together. But when Mikey was diagnosed with autism, the dynamics changed. “Particularly when he would try to play sports. Either the coaches would be too competitive to let him really participate or the kids would be callus,” Matt Certner says of the impetus for him starting Sports Clinic for Children with Special Needs.

Matt wanted to let kids like Mikey have a chance at an even playing field if they wanted to play sports. Matt started with one clinic in his hometown in New Jersey with volunteers from his high school, but in 2 1/2 years, the non-profit group has expanded to six in the state, helping approximately 100 special needs kids and their families. The kids play soccer in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. Like any other sports clinic, the kids get uniforms and trophies.

Matt, now 18, is going to Duke in the Fall, but plans to continue his work. “People say to me all the time, ‘Matt you got into college already, why are you still doing the clinic?’ I don’t do it for resume status. Ever since I was young I wanted to give back. I love it. I love the kids.”

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Zach Bonner, 11, is walking to the White House to raise awareness of homless children in the U.S.

It all started during Hurricane Charlie. Zach Bonner, then just 6 years old, took his little red wagon door to door in his neighborhood to collect clean water for the victims. After four months, Zach had collected 27 truck loads of supplies.

“Some boys like football or baseball, Zach likes doing charity work,” his mom says. He liked it so much by the time hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, Zach’s family needed to set up a foundation because of the amount of monetary donations he was taking in. They named it Little Red Wagon Foundation, after the moniker he received around town during Charlie.

His latest mission doesn’t include the wagon, just his feet, and a 1,225-mile journey of the “My House to the White House” project. This is the last walk he is doing to raise money and awareness for the 1.3 million homeless kids in the United States. The money is going to setting up apartments for them. “It’s really hard not to help. Once you’ve met them and heard their stories, it’s hard not to want to help,” Zach, now 11, tells us.

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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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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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Jessica Cox, 25, born without arms, is training to become a sport pilot instructor.

Whether it’s swimming, gymnastics or tap dancing as a kid or driving and flying as a young adult, this girl does it all, with her feet!

Doctors still don’t know why Jessica Cox, 25, was born without arms. Sonograms and other prenatal tests didn’t reveal her rare congenital condition. Jessica sees that condition, though, as an exercise in imagination. To put clothes on, she uses a dressing hook. To type her college papers, she used her toes.

“For the most part I don’t think about the restrictions or how I can’t do something. I think about how I can make it happen,” Jessica says. For some years growing up, she wore prosthetic arms, but hated them. She felt it was more important to be true to herself and be proud of her accomplishments, some that most people with all four limbs can’t even tackle!

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J.R. Martinez, 25, is a national spokesperson for the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes.

J.R. Martinez wanted to give back to the country that gave him and his family so much. The 25-year-old enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 2002, much to the hesitation of his El Salvadorian mom. In February of 2003, he deployed to Iraq, promising his mom he’d return in one piece. That April, he did.

His body was in one piece, but badly burned and scarred. “I knew it was going to be a bad day,” J.R. remembers of the day he was serving as the driver of his unit’s Humvee when the left front tire hit a land mine. J.R. suffered smoke inhalation and severe burns to more than 40% of his body. His mother met him at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, to help him recover from the 32 different surgeries he’d undergo over the next 34 months.

During that time, he realized that the injury might have been a blessing in disguise. He became a national spokesperson for the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes. He also became a lead actor on the daytime Soap Opera “All My Children,” not needing much preparation to play a veteran wounded overseas. Reacting to all his recent success and confidence, J.R. simply says, “Dream and dream big, because it’s free and it’s something no one can take away from you.”

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Marvelyn Brown, 24, wrote 'The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive'

She went through hell alone. Her family made her use paper plates and plastic forks when she ate. At 19, she slept in her car. When Marvelyn Brown was diagnosed with HIV, she not only contracted a virus, she got the stigma that goes along with it.

But, this former track star sprinted past the misconceptions associated with the virus, the sterotypes and the fear. Marvelyn would rather live her life like a marathon, talking with and educating young people about the disease. She wrote the book, “The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful, and (HIV) Positive,” using the parenthesis there on purpose.

Almost 30 years after the disease was first reported, Marvelyn deals with the stereotypes everyday while keeping a positive outlook. “We exist in a world where we continue to define the disease as only affecting people with a certain look or belonging to a certain socioeconomic group. I’m living proof that nothing is farther from the truth,” she says. Especially now around Black Aids Day, Marvelyn wants to prevent young women from having unprotected sex, and if they make the mistake once like she did, they don’t have to go through the same thing she did socially and emotionally.

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Sean Forbes, 26, started the non-profit Deaf Performing Artists’ Network.

Sean Forbes is a young musician. He grew up with musical parents and always had his own talent and aspirations in the field. But, Sean just happens to be deaf.

Not letting being deaf stand in the way of his dream, Sean started a non-profit called D-PAN, or Deaf Performing Artists’ Network. It aims to make the music industry and music culture more accessible to the deaf community, namely by making popular music videos ASL (American Sign Language) – enhanced. “When you tell people who aren’t familiar with D-PAN that we create music videos for the deaf, they’re always taken back. I love the oxymoron of it which is why it’s so beautiful,” the 26-year-old says.

Whether it’s doing songs by Christina Aguilera, John Mayer or Eminem, Sean sees beauty in the way his deaf performers sign to music. The songwriters, directors and producers that make up D-PAN strive to bring the hearing and the deaf communities together with their art — an art that transcends sound and can be felt by all.

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Johnathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel, 26, became the world's first full-time professional gamer.

I mean, really, which young boy doesn’t want to get paid to play video games all day?! Sure, there are the gamers-turned-developers who can make money. But, Johnathan Wendel, who goes by “Fatal1ty,” makes money, a lot of it, playing games.

Johnathan became the world’s first full-time professional video gamer nearly 10 years ago. He has won competitions around the globe, with earnings estimated at $500,000. Further capitalizing on his brand, he started the gaming gear company, Fatal1ty, Inc.

This 26-year-old considers himself a professional athlete, or “E-Sportsman.” If you think Johnathan has hit the jackpot with no hard work, think again. He trains for hours a day and reviews tapes of himself in action, like any other athlete.

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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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