Celine Qin is an award-winning youth changemaker, social justice advocate, and proud daughter of working-class immigrants. Born and raised in California, she founded The Reclamation Project at just 13 years old, a grassroots organization spearheading youth-led movements for systems-change, equity, and liberation, which has mobilized 70,000+ youth and allies, successfully directed 280+ events, campaigns, and local to national projects, and built a coalition of 1,400+ youth participants, 122+ collaborating organizations and public officials, and 250+ student volunteers. With a childhood rooted in racial justice activism and 6+ years of experience in local, state, and national social and progressive causes, Celine has advised nearly $20 million in government and philanthropic partnerships to establish life-affirming resource networks in historically-underrepresented communities, including directly procuring $600,000+ towards multicultural civic advocacy and leadership programs for young leaders of racial minority, low-income, and immigrant/refugee backgrounds. As a speaker to now a cumulative audience of 400,000+ youth across 171+ countries worldwide, she empowers young people to come forth with their stories and reimagine society in their boldest vision. At 18, Celine’s pioneering efforts have been recognized by the Princeton University Prize in Race Relations, Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations, members of the United States Congress, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Treasury, California Department of Justice, leaders across Europe, United Nations Economic and Social Council and further UN affiliates, and the UN-sponsored International Organization for Youth. Celine strives for a career in pro bono immigration law, currently planning to concentrate in History and Literature at Harvard University, specializing in Ethnic Studies with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights.

Who am I when the world shakes? I was born to prove my livelihood unconquerable. I was born hungry for agency in a type of world that exists to take it. I was born parched for answers in a system dissipating the richness of a political peoplehood, culture, and resistance. I was born for leadership. I owed myself control to process my uprisings and downfalls. I would demand it, and I wanted to be the one to make it happen.

By the time I became a teenager, the broader meanings of an Asian-American woman existence began to solidify. In the same energy, I immersed myself in the work and prose of Grace Lee Boggs, the Young Lordes and Panthers, Angela Davis, Yuri Kochiyama, Ocean Vuong, Anuradha Ghandy, and Joan Didion. I equipped essay writing and poetry as my catharsis and propelled action watching fragments of my, and countless others’, human experience take the form of sentences, criticisms, and revolutionary reimagining. I knew I was born not one to question shyly within boundaries, but to uproot them altogether in my journey of searching and curiosity. And naturally, that would mean creating entirely new frameworks of my own.

Today, I vow myself to create without defined borders. I break trajectories assumed onto youthhood, for myself, my people, and fellow systems-impacted youth who know firsthand what it means to receive pain and struggle to find oneself in an unfathomably difficult society. I learn every day to stretch the meanings of love.

I found my world in public policy, activism, and community organizing—building connections on the grassroots and touching lived experiences with transformative diligence. I found my world in a perpetual pursuit for knowledge and solutions. I found my world in unwavering solidarity and self-discovery. I found my world in fearlessness.