Though it’s been almost a decade since she graduated, Sonia Marquez still leaves quite a mark on the many Hispanic youth at Skyline High School.

For 10 years, immigration has been a contentious issue in the United States. In the early part of the decade, the Bush administration was prepared to offer mass amnesty to illegal immigrants. As governor of Texas he’d long been friendly with Mexico, and both he and then-Mexican President Vincente Fox supported a big amnesty and guest worker program.

Rachelle Ruiz, 18, did not know she was applying for a job when she applied for a scholarship with the nonprofit Alliance for Climate Education earlier this year.

Young people have a unique relationship with the environment: They are often the first affected when something goes wrong, yet the least represented when decisions are made.

When Josiah Kaufman was a freshman at Carmel High School, he would bring his lunch every day. When the period was over, he would help his friends return their lunch trays out of "courtesy," he said. Soon, he began helping other students clean up. "It became this thing where I went all around the cafeteria and started picking up everyone's trays when they were done. It was so funny. People were like, 'Why in the world are you doing this?'" Josiah was just being nice. It also was his way of adapting to new people and a new school system. It was Josiah's first year in a public school.

When Tamika Catchings was a kid, she did not show any signs of becoming an international basketball superstar. She was a girl with a speech impediment, hearing aids and braces. Children teased her, and she'd often come home crying, frustrated with school and life.