In a feature article and video on Boldfacers, Holly Carter (Founder and Executive Director of BYkids) talks about how to engage American kids in global issues and explains how helping kids will help us all.

We are lucky to have some very special interns for the summer. Starting with Jordan Wechsler from Dalton, who spent the month of May working for BYkids as his senior initiative, we also have Matthew Marr and Molly Rider from Bowdoin and Noelle Durkin and Hannah Kliot from Dalton. Thanks to the other members of the Junior Committee including Alex Mabred and Veronica Mukhia and the gang from Collegiate.

Our sold-out Benefit is a fantastic success! The sneak peak of our upcoming film by 16-year-old Marí­a Ceballos Paz of Colombia aroused passionate interest amongst benefit guests, and Film Mentor Susan Hoenig shared fascinating stories of the making of this powerful film. Thanks to all, the evening raises over $40,000 for BYkids. See photos here »

We also unveiled a rough cut of our new promo donated by advertising wizards Alonso Davila and Ty Baker and the generous Stephanie Apt and Betty Jo Moore of Final Cut Pro.

Overseen by film producer and mentor, Susan Hoenig, editing begins on our Colombian film in Los Angeles.

International pop-superstar, Juanes, is writing original music for our next film BYkids: Colombia. Both a Grammy and 17-time Latin Grammy winner, Juanes is Billboard’s “Star of the Decade”.

FIRE IN OUR HEARTS, made by Jayshree Janu Kharpade of India, receives it first festival selection. Selected for the 2012 India International Film Festival of Tampa Bay, FIRE IN OUR HEARTS is screened in February 2012, in the festival’s main venue at Channelside Cinemas IMAX in Tampa.

BYkids ongoing collaboration with DoSomething.org now features trailers of BYkids films on DoSomething.org’s Cause Video platform, bringing BYkids films to social changers under 25 years old and reaching two million teens.

Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari, BYkids’ second youth filmmaker who made MY COUNTRY IS TIBET, is selected as a Global Teen Leader for the We Are Family Foundation’s (WAFF) Three Dot Dash Initiative and attends the Just Peace Summit in March 2012. Chosen from amongst an extraordinary group of teen nominees representing 37 countries, Trichen was selected for his ‘leadership and vision’ in contributing to a more peaceful world. Three Dot Dash Initiative provides Trichen with a mentor and a small stipend for one year to further develop the work that he launched with his BYkids film.

16-year-old Jayshree Janu Kharpade, BYkids youth filmmaker of FIRE IN OUR HEARTS and mentored by Joyce Chopra, is celebrated in a lengthy feature in the December issue of Femina, one of India’s oldest and best known magazines.

2011 Academy Award winner Karen Goodman becomes a BYkids Film Mentor. A renowned documentary filmmaker, Goodman has received three previous Academy Award nominations, many Emmys and the Dupont-Columbia Award for Independent Programming. Her documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS and HBO and screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, Berlin, London, Montreal and St. Petersburg. Goodman describes BYkids as ‘an extraordinary opportunity for the next generation of cinematic storytellers’.

BYkids third film, FIRE IN OUR HEARTS, made by 16-year-old Jayshree Janu Kharpade of India, is completed and begins distribution. Mentored by the esteemed Joyce Chopra, Jayshree’s film sheds a personal light on the immense social and economic potential of educating girls in the developing world. See trailer here.

Edmond Mulet, Assistant Secretary-General for U.N. Peacekeeping Operations, becomes a core advisor for developing BYkids partnerships with United Nations agencies, extending the story sourcing, on-site logistics and strategic outreach for BYkids films. Secretary-General Mulet states, “Each BYkids youth storyteller mobilizes our conscience towards a larger sense of global solidarity. BYkids reminds us that we are one Humanity.”

BYkids partners with Discovery Education, the nation’s largest and most prestigious education distributor, to stream BYkids films to over one million educators and half of all American middle and high school students across the country. Kelli Campbell, Senior Vice President of Discovery Education, says that BYkids films “not only inform, they engage students’ imagination and passion – which is always at the heart of true learning, true understanding and insight…”