Take note of the name Sareana Kimia, because we have no doubt this 16 year old dynamo from Maryland is going to be President one day!
She has a political activist resume larger than most adults twice her age, and that is not an exaggeration. She has a student seat on the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee, was the field director for the 2014 primary campaign of Delegate Will Smith (D-Montgomery), was the Youth outreach coordinator for the gubernatorial run of Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D), and is also the President/CEO & Founder of Youth for National Change, a website dedicated to increasing youth awareness and youth impact on all levels of legislative and political issues that affect the youth of America.
What did you guys accomplish by your sweet 16th? Just kidding, don’t answer that, just read on and be inspired! This is the type of role model that should be promoted more here in the US! We don’t need reality shows about teen moms, socialites, rich kids of Instagram etc etc, we need a generation of girls and boys who understand how to take life by the balls and make the world a better place for those around them.
Aside from her aforementioned political accolades (which are all voluntary, by the way) Sareana is also taking classes at the University of Maryland under a concurrent enrollment program for exceptional students, while finishing her her junior year of high school. It sounds like she is on her way to capitol hill stardom, but there is one thing about her life that leaves you scratching your heads. Sareana and her mom, a single parent, are homeless, according to the Washington Post.
Shefali Gupta lost her job and was deeply in debt. She has two degrees in economics and IT, but was working in real estate when the housing bubble burst and as a result, they went broke. They lost the house they were living in and have spent time living in shelters and in their car. They have no health insurance and Sareana’s mother had an emotional collapse but they weren’t able to afford treatment.
Sareana’s story being highlighted by the Washington Post illuminates a major class struggle in the United States, and gives a different perspective into the lives of the country’s homeless. Unlike what we see in the media, not everyone who is homeless has a mental illness or suffered from some sort of substance abuse which sent them bankrupt.
But despite her difficult circumstance, Sareana hasn’t allowed her political interests and education prospects waver. It has been the one thing that has kept her going during this time. Sareana and her mother are now temporarily staying at the house of democrat activist Evan Glass, who she met at a Young Democrats convention in 2013. He knew there was something extraordinary about the teen girl and offered for her to stay at his place until they get back on their feet.
“You can have things going on” in your personal life, she said, “and still be good at what you do,” she told the Washington Post.
Her focus and determination is incredible, a true testament to that illusive “American Dream” spirit which somehow still lingers in our current culture, despite the alarming numbers of middle class professionally-working families who have become homeless due to the economy.
“Honestly, it sounds cheesy, but I want to bridge those gaps of inequality that exist in our society, handling them case by case in terms of civil rights law,” she said. Sareana plans to become a civil rights attorney one day.
She is currently trying to raise money for her tuition via an online crown-funding campaign. Her goal was to raise close to $15,000, and so far she has exceeded that with nearly $24,ooo at the time of writing this!
In 2011 at the age of 12 she was honored with an award from the Smithsonian for her volunteer work, presented by actress Susan Sarandon. In 2010 she made two trips to India to see her grandparents, and during her time there she prepared meals for dozens of poor, hungry children at a temple.
“I saw many children who were barely clothed and dirty,” said Sareana. “They suffered from extreme poverty and hunger. I was very heartbroken. I knew I could do something.”
Between 35 and 40 hungry children benefited from the five meals Sareana and her team prepared. After returning back to the US, she made a presentation on the issue of poverty and hunger to 150 people with the intent to start a program similar to the one in India.
“I want to continue to see the happy and cheerful faces of poor and hungry children when they are fed,” said Sareana. “I think that one can change life one small step at a time.”
While her mother is slowly recovering from her emotional ordeal, Kimia continues to use her talents for the benefit of her community. She told the Washington Post that her circumstance isn’t going to get in the way of her achievements, rather, they are all part of her journey.
We saw how Nevada representative Lucy Flores openly spoke about her abortion earlier in 2014, and her reasoning for admitting it publicly. She was a girl who was caught in crime, drugs and gangs because her family were in disarray after her mother left, and her father was the sole parent looking after Lucy and her siblings. When she got pregnant, she decided to have an abortion because she knew, after a small stint in jail, that life was not about being a statistic, that she could rise above if she made conscious decisions to change.
She may not have come from the ideal political background as some of the DC elites we are used to seeing, but Lucy Flores is giving hope to many young women that your economic or cultural circumstance does not have to dictate your direction in life.
We see this quite clearly in Sareana Kimia’s life.
“I’ve not become what statistics tell me I should become,” she said. It’s a powerful statement to the rest of us reading this. There is something in Sareana Kimia’s story we can all use to stay inspired.
