Meghann Gunderman, activist

Researching her college thesis in an orphanage in northern Tanzania changed her forever. Now, At 24, Meghann is changing lives. “I was moved to act,” Meghann says. “Fifty percent of the Tanzanian population is under 15 years old. Over a million of those kids are orphaned.” While still in college, Meghann raised tens of thousands of dollars to improve the orphanage’s facilities and the lives of the children that so touched her heart—but felt her part-time effort wasn’t enough. Finally, last November, Meghann left her promising finance career to devote herself full-time to the children, with the creation of The Foundation for Tomorrow, a nonprofit that provides scholarships for orphaned children to attend boarding school in their home country. “We’re taking on these children as the responsibility of the entire world,” says Meghann, now executive director of the foundation. “I look at each of them as if they are my own children.”