From 13-Year-Old Organizer to Global Changemaker: How Celine Is Mobilizing 270,000+ Youth Worldwide

Celine didn’t set out to start a nonprofit. She set out to respond to the inequities she was witnessing around her. What began as frustration during distance learning turned into action through late nights on a Google Doc and virtual organizing with other young leaders who shared the same urgency.

That effort became The Reclamation Project, a 100% youth-run grassroots social justice organization dedicated to empowering trauma and system-impacted youth. Since 2020, her leadership as Executive Director has mobilized 270,000+ community members, launched 280+ initiatives, grown a network of 2,000+ youth mentees, 175+ organizational partners, and 250+ volunteers across her home state and globally.

Now 18 and a first-generation student at Stanford University studying history and public policy, Celine continues to ground her work in the community that raised her, building collective liberation by meeting the moment and centering lived experiences.

Here’s her story—and what she has learned along the way.

#1: How did the Reclamation Project come to be? What inspired you?

Celine: I started what would become The Reclamation Project when I was around 13, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. That year made the deep health and social inequities facing low-income communities and communities of color impossible to ignore, especially for immigrant families like the ones I grew up around.

I had already been involved in Asian American immigrant rights organizing, and during the pandemic, I saw firsthand how essential resources, especially health information and care, were inaccessible due to language barriers and systemic neglect.

I wanted to create something that could directly respond to these gaps, so the project began as both a digital and on-the-ground organizing effort focused on resource inequity, immigrant rights, racism, and underfunded public schools.

Over time, I connected with other middle and high school students who felt the same urgency, and together we built a small group that eventually grew into a large, structured network of volunteers and organizers.

Our earliest initiatives focused on emergency mutual aid, addressing food insecurity in our communities. That work later expanded into partnerships with state efforts, including collaborations to bring COVID vaccinations and boosters to immigrant elders.

Today, The Reclamation Project continues to evolve, but its core remains the same: to empower and liberate historically marginalized and underserved youth.

#2: How did you bring together a group of remarkable people with like-minded values?

Celine: I brought together people by leading with lived experience and shared values, not credentials. From the beginning, the Reclamation Project was rooted in the belief that the people doing the work should deeply understand the communities being served.

Our mission centers on empowering historically marginalized youth, and that naturally drew in young people, mostly youth of color, LGBTQ+ youth, and women, who had personally experienced systemic inequities, trauma, or marginalization themselves.

Practically, that meant meeting people where they already were.

I started by reaching out online through Google Docs, Discord servers, subreddits, and Instagram DMs, connecting with other young people who were already expressing care, anger, or curiosity about injustice. I looked for people who felt how deep these issues cut and who wanted to turn that feeling into action. Over time, those conversations turned into a team.

More broadly, my approach to building community is about choosing intentional leaders: people who understand the real consequences of this work on real lives and creating structures that make participation accessible.

Not everyone needs to lead right away, so we built multiple entry points: volunteers, organizers, regional teams, and leadership roles.

We wanted to build a structure that sends a clear message: you belong here, and there’s space for you to contribute in whatever way you can.

That’s how we found our people and how we’ve continued to grow together.

#3: Can you walk us through how you went from an idea to having the resources to sustain this work?

Celine: I owe so much of this work to the mentors and community members who believed in me before I fully believed in myself.

One of the most influential people in my journey was Megan Safigao from the Asian American Liberation Network, whom I connected with early on while organizing one of our first mutual aid workshops in 2022.

She didn’t just validate my voice, she taught me the practical tools I needed to sustain the work, from fundraising and strategy to navigating power dynamics with institutions and funders.

Beyond individual mentors, The Reclamation Project grew through an ecosystem of relationships. Today, we work with over 175 partner organizations, but what matters most to me isn’t the number; it’s the people behind each partnership who showed up, shared resources, and believed in collective action.

I don’t see this work as something I built alone; it’s the result of communities coming together and supporting one another. I want to be clear that my story isn’t about a single teenager doing something extraordinary, rather it’s about what becomes possible when people invest in each other and move forward together.

#4: The numbers speak for themselves. How did you manage to scale your project to such amazing heights?

Celine: At the beginning, the biggest barrier wasn’t resources — it was fear. I struggled deeply with imposter syndrome and was afraid to reach out, even to local organizations that were clearly aligned with our mission. Looking back, I realize how much time I lost simply because I didn’t believe I belonged in those spaces yet. We had the right values, the right people, and the right intentions, but I was hesitant to step into rooms where I felt small or inexperienced.

Over time, I learned that impact scales when you stop being afraid to ask. Each time our work grew whether reaching hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people it was because we took a chance on a conversation or partnership.

The same was true at the global level: I didn’t initially see how youth-led, grassroots organizing fit into international spaces, until I realized that liberation and equity are shared struggles across borders. 

Once I understood that our work had value beyond our immediate community, I stopped questioning whether we belonged and started acting like we did. That shift from doubt to confidence changed everything. The internet is just numbers on a screen but when someone actually tells you they took action because of something you made, that’s unforgettable.

#5: What does empowerment mean to you?

Celine: For me, Reclamation began as a deeply personal reflection on what it means to reclaim agency over our lives, our stories, and our futures in a world where systems are often designed to suppress that agency.

I think a lot about how ordinary people rebuild themselves on their own terms. One book that shaped this thinking for me is On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which captures how empowerment and healing can come from redefining life outside of imposed narratives. That theme resonates deeply with my family, my lineage, and the communities I grew up in.

The people who motivated this work, immigrants, people of color, and marginalized youth, have all faced systems that try to limit, stereotype, or erase them. But what I’ve seen, and what I strive to embody, is the act of rejecting those definitions entirely. I refuse to let those challenges categorize me or determine who I’m allowed to be.

Actively reclaiming agency, rewriting the narrative, and building something new on our own terms is what empowers me and it’s the foundation of everything I do.

#6: If a student wants to make a difference but doesn’t know where to start, what’s the first step you’d tell them to take?

Celine: This might sound generic, but I always tell people to start by looking within their local ecosystem. I know that advice can feel flat, especially because organizing and social justice work isn’t always visible or accessible everywhere. Some people genuinely don’t have clear entry points, and that’s real. But in many places, there is an ecosystem; it’s just a matter of knowing where and how to look.

As for how we did it, it’s all about getting creative. I’m definitely exposing my strategies here, but one thing that my team and I have been doing for the past couple of years is scouring and combing through subreddits to see what’s happening on the ground. It really is that “you know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy” effect.

I also think college campuses are uniquely powerful spaces for organizing because they bring together such a wide range of perspectives and lived experiences.

That said, I take my own advice with a grain of salt. What’s worked for me might not work for everyone but I’ve learned that curiosity, patience, and a willingness to dig a little deeper often reveal more than you expect.

Stay Connected

Connect with Celine: Linked-In

Connect with The Reclamation Project (TRP Coalition): Linked-In