The Gloria Barron Prize honors American young people from 8 to l8 who have shown leadership and courage in public service. Each year ten winners each receive$2, 000 to support their higher education or their service work.
Ellie Wen, 18, was volunteering at a community center in Los Angeles. The center was set up to help immigrant families. She happened to meet adults in an EFL (English as a foreign language)class. "When I saw them struggling hard, I wondered how people in poor countries could learn English, "Ellie said.
So she started a Website, "Repeat After Us", where people can listen to English and practice their accents. Volunteers have helped Ellie record more than 6, 600 texts, including Abraham Lincoln's" Gettysburg Address".
Hard work pays off. There were so many times that Ellie was discouraged, but she stuck to it. The Website crashed early on, and all the recordings were lost. But volunteers worked together vigorously to start over, and the visitors returned to the site.
"Just follow your idea and know that the world is so kind. Even if you do have trouble, people will help you," Ellie said.
"I was really excited the first month, when we had 49 visitors, "she said. Now, more than 480, 000 people from all over the world have visited the site. "I get e-mails from China, Egypt, India, and Brazil. "They say, "Thank you so much for this resource, we've been waiting for it for so long!" Ellie loves knowing she is helping so many people.
Gloria Barron Prize winners like Ellie are enthusiastic about the work they do. And they encourage others to join in if they see a need. Anybody can be negative, but it needs somebody brave to be positive. Are you the brave one?
a. Ellie started a Website, Repeat After Us b. Ellie happened to meet adults in an EFL class.
c. All the recordings were lost. d. Ellie became a Gloria Barron Prize winner.
e. More than 480, 000 people from all over the world visited the site.