Changing the world, one person at a time

Captured Images/Kenny Felt-- Megan Felt works at her desk at the Lowell Milken Center, Fort Scott, Kan. Felt was recently nominated for the BR!CK Award for her work as the founder of the Life in a Jar Project, which she founded as a 14-year-old freshman at Uniontown High School in 1999.

On her journey toward changing the world by helping to make a difference, Megan Felt has been met with a pleasant surprise.

The Pittsburg resident and former Uniontown student, who now works as the program director for the Lowell Milken Center, 4 S. Main St., Fort Scott, was recently nominated for the BR!CK award, a set of awards determined by Internet voters that have been presented annually to 10 young world-changers and community service leaders between 18 and 25 years of age since 1996.

Felt, a 2003 Uniontown graduate and 2007 Pittsburg State University graduate, is also the founder of the student-driven Life in a Jar project, which began when she was a 14-year-old freshman at Uniontown Junior-Senior High School in 1999. That project tells the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish woman who rescued more than 2,500 Jewish children from Nazi Germans during the Holocaust.

The project, which has since become globally recognized, is centered around a stage play that has since been performed more than 200 times in three countries, and is still performed by a group of 12 students who are leading the project into the future, Felt said. Sendler's story began with a National History Day project designed by a group of UJSHS students, including Felt and several others.

The Life in a Jar project is the driving force behind Felt's nomination for the BR!CK award, among other endeavors she has accomplished. She and fellow project member Jaime Walker, a colleague of Felt's at the Lowell Milken Center, recently created a profile for Felt online that describes her work with Sendler and the Life in a Jar project.

"I found out about this (the BR!CK awards) on an educational Web site and when reading the criteria, I knew it was the award for Megan," Walker said. "I'm so proud of what she has accomplished in her life and the dreams she has. I know that she'll reach her goals as she has continued to do thus far."

After a profile is created, someone else has to nominate that person for the BR!CK award, which Felt said occurred just a few hours after she posted her profile online.

Felt also chose to recognize many of the former students who helped her make the project successful.

"I understand that a magazine editor nominated me," she said. "It is very exciting and a great honor. I never imagined that working with Elizabeth (Cambers) Hutton, Sabrina (Coons) Murphy, and Jessica (Shelton) Ripper on a National History Day project would lead to so many opportunities."

Should she win one of the awards, Felt will receive a $10,000 community grant that she can donate to the non-profit group or organization of her choice, and she will also be in the running for the Golden BR!CK award, which will be presented to the eventual national winner along with $100,000 in community grants. Award recipients who still attend school will receive $10,000 college scholarships.

The award selection process is based on the work each candidate has completed to change the world in three areas; education and environment, global impact, and health.

Felt submitted her project profile on Dec. 3, and was nominated shortly after.

Walker said those who wish to rate Felt's project among the hundreds of others available can do so online at www.dosomething.org/node/42099.

More information on the BR!CK awards can be found online at www.dosome-thing.org/brickawards.html.

Nominees who are notified by e-mail by Feb. 15, 2008, will be considered finalists and will then visit New York City on March 6-7 for interviews conducted by former award winners to determine who will be chosen for the 10 BR!CK awards, which will be announced shortly after.

A national voting process will then determine the national winner from the 10 finalists' prepared one-minute videos documenting the reasons why they should win the award. The awards ceremony will be televised.

Felt said she now enjoys working with the Lowell Milken Center, a non-profit foundation funded by the Milken Family Foundation in California. The center is designed to help student and teachers across the globe to choose and develop ideas related to school history projects and other projects -- much like the Sendler project -- dealing with the teaching of respect and understanding among all people.

"It is such a joy to work with history projects all over the country," Felt said. "It has been my dream to establish such a center, and now we are working on projects that teach about unsung heroes. There are so many examples in the world of people who have made a difference. We are looking at people from all walks of life, whose character and courage are remarkable."

Felt said her ultimate goal is to continue working with the center to help teachers and students around the world for many years to come.

"One day, the Lowell Milken Center and Fort Scott will be known for the impact they have had on making the world a better place by bringing the stories of unknown heroes to light," she said. "People will see that they too can make a difference by being involved in the development of our projects. This impact will continue to spread in a ripple effect all over the world."