More often than not, we all hear about the challenges facing the world today. How we should cherish our belongings because there are “kids in Africa” who don’t even have access to regular water. How we should donate to the “initiatives” being started to aid those who need it most. These phrases are the farthest extent to which we modern American students hear about the challenges facing other people. In all honesty, this happens because most of us don’t really care. We are preoccupied with the conventional “keep your grades up” and “think about your future”.  The difficulties facing others are nothing compared to the obstacles in our own lives, so why care?

The truth is, for us students, the poverty crisis affects us more than we realize. In order to advance our understanding of the world, we must rely on the future generation. On intellectual and political stability that ensures a dynamic and habitual environment for continued growth. Nonetheless, the development and poverty crisis is usually overlooked as the root and key to that promising future. Poverty equals instability, and the over 1.2 billion in poverty today is more than enough to collapse the future we students are working tirelessly towards.

Two summers ago, while on a visit to India with my grandparents, I encountered the epitome of such progressive poverty. Casually strolling the village at my relatives’ house in Madhya Pradesh, Central India, I saw kids restlessly plowing through schoolbooks, with their parents chatting on about the corruption in the state government that had cancelled their plan for a new generator, which would finally bring constant electricity to the village. Children living life without a perpetual source of energy were just as dedicated to education and development as I was to reaching academic goals as an American high school student. In the end, this made me realize how much undiscovered talent there is out in the impoverished climate, how many geniuses there are that can’t unlock their “Steve Jobs” potential simply because of a lack of resources Americans consider essential for daily life.

Albeit there are numerous, hardworking organizations relentlessly working to remedy this crisis, the most important aspect is awareness on this issue. We must realize that the potential for global development is at our feet, and striving to work towards a better future by doing what we can for poverty will reap us benefits. Improving the lives of others, on a large scale, brings political stability, innovation, and renewal to the lifestyle we live today. Most importantly, however, it rewards us personally by letting us know that we have made a real difference in the global community. Not just for “service hours”, but for our future. There are countless opportunities in front of us, from simply helping out at a NGO or initiative fundraiser to passionately building lights in villages with the Liter of Light. The point is not to get everyone to do something, it is to get everyone to be aware of the challenges facing us in our future, and how we can combat that as proactively as possible.