Haley Kilpatrick, founder of Girl Talk, poses in her new office in the Fidelity Bank Building in downtown Atlanta. The mentoring program, which pairs high school and middle school girls, aims to help younger girls deal with teasing and cyberbullying and foster leadership skills among older girls. (Joanne Ciccarello/Staff)
As a teen Haley Kilpatrick felt the sting of school bullying herself. She started the youth program 'Girl Talk' to stand up to it.People Making a Difference (View all)
- Using hands-on philanthropy to bring Haiti relief
- Children who lend a helping hand show they can make a difference and change the world
- She went to New Orleans to clean up after Hurricane Katrina – and stayed to start a charter school
- How a college president toppled the ivory tower
- 'Super-librarian' figures out secret to getting kids to read
- Her guiding principle when working with at-risk teens: Never, ever give up
- Helping South Korea's foreign workers win fair treatment
- She uses paint, brushes, and volunteers to clean up graffiti and build communities
- Matching kids with adults who live their dream
- Surviving floods, droughts, and poachers' bullets to save elephants
More People Making a Difference
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Helping teens be a real guitar hero – by caring for others
Sandra Rizkallah and Tom Pugh founded the after-school music program "Plugged In" to help teens start rock bands – and learn about serving others.
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He invites suicide jumpers for a cup of tea
Don Ritchie moved to a house outside Sydney, Australia, for the clifftop view. But soon he was stopping suicides by inviting potential jumpers inside for a cup of tea.
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Hitting a high note by helping high school musicians in Seattle shed limitations
Orchestra leader Marcus Tsutakawa and jazz band conductor Clarence Acox inspire music students at Seattle's Garfield High School.
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She recruited Facebook friends to save Gulf Coast's hermit crabs.
When park ranger Leanne Sarco saw oil-covered hermit crabs on the Louisiana beaches, she started her own project to clean and save them.
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Liberia's only woman newspaper editor packs a 'Punch'
Ora Garway runs the tiny newspaper Punch, which despite its modest size has exposed the need for reform in Liberia, a West African country still recovering from a civil war.
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He teaches inner-city kids how to be smart about money
Douglas Coe has founded the Bulls and Bears summer camp, where kids can try being a stock analyst – and learn how to handle their own finances too.
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Jimmy Pham went back to Vietnam to help lift others out of poverty
His training program in Vietnam pulls poor youths off the streets and sends them into good jobs at hotels and restaurants.
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Once a high-tech exec, he now shares his passion for reading in Asia and Africa.
John Wood has turned his love of books, reading, and education into more than 10,000 libraries through 'Room to Read.'
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After seeing Mumbai's slums bulldozed, he now works to save them
Crews once bulldozed thousands of slum homes in Mumbai, a metropolitan region of about 16 million people in India. Santosh Thorat sees a better way: Help residents fix them up.
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Protecting women and girls in China
Chai Ling was a leader of the 1989 student uprising at Tiananmen Square. Now she wants to help women and girls in her native China.
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Even rising drug violence won't stop him from helping Mexico's poor
Jerry Quick has been visiting Juárez, Mexico, for a decade, building houses and setting up job training programs.
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Defying tradition in Syria to serve as a full-time surrogate mother
Fawzia al-Thiab has left behind the idea of having children of her own to be a foster mother to orphans – more than 35 of them so far.
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Helping migrant workers prove who they are – and avoid exploitation
When Haitians cross into the Dominican Republic to work, they often lack official documents that can help protect them from abuse. That's where Johnny Rivas steps in.
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'Wolf man' Doug Smith studies Yellowstone's restored predators
'Nature without wolves is not nature,' says the field biologist and project leader
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Teacher combats a Colombian youth crisis with dance
Internationally known dancer Alvaro Restrepo returned to his native land to help slum-dwelling children discover their potential and change their lives.
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A business course that puts personal growth on the bottom line
Something of a rock star among business school teachers Srikumar Rao offers a class that gives his students broader perspectives on their lives.
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A prosperous lawyer aids China's migrant workers
Liu Pifeng, the wealthy founder of a law firm, spends part of his time defending the rights of China's poorest: migrant workers. His ultimate goal is to fix China's faulty legal system.
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A horse rescuer who saves thoroughbreds headed to slaughterhouses
Near Philadelphia, Erin Hurley finds adopted homes for retired race horses, saving them from a trip to the slaughterhouse.
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A passion for learning results in a school for India's poorest children
Babar Ali, just a teenager himself, has started a free school in his parents' backyard for the poorest children in his village in India's West Bengal region.
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In Syria, the fight for women's rights means helping both genders
Bassam al-Kadi heads the Syrian Women's Observatory, which aims to change the way both the government and the culture regard women in Syria.
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