Last week I visited my grandparents. My aunt was also staying there for a few nights for a family visit. My grandma had told me my aunt’s money problems and always feels so bad for her.

My aunt, Jenney Brown, is in her early thirties and she has three little children, along with serious heart problems. Her husband died of cancer a few years ago and she has lost her job recently. She has a lot of financial difficulty. She told me some things in her life: She couldn’t get milk for her little boy since it is too expensive. She was so happy to find $2 jeans at a shop even though it couldn’t really fit her, she was worried about the long drive to my grandparents’ house, because she had no food for the next day and no money to buy gas on the way as she had spent her last $20.

I had saved some money. After hearing about her troubles, I went downstairs and put a note of $50 in the front pocket of the handbag in secret. I didn’t want to give her money directly, because I knew it would embarrass her and that she would refuse it since I’m a kid and don’t have a job.

However, I’m very happy with what I did. Although I do not know whether she can find who has given her the money, I know it is of use to her. She is raising a family and has large medical needs! I hope more people know how bad my aunt’s situation really is so that she gets more help.

On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan left Lae, New Guinea for Howland Island in the Pacific. This was without a doubt the longest and most dangerous part of their trip around the world. Earhart had trouble shortly after takeoff. The weather was stormy, so she had to fly at approximately 3,000 meters. Going this high the plane used up gas quickly.

After about 20 hours, Earhart and Noonan approached Howland Island. The island was only about a hundred kilometers away at this point, but the bright sun was shining in their faces, so they couldn’t see it. Near Howland, a ship—the Itasca—was waiting. Earhart contacted the ship: “Gas is low,” she said. The Itasca tried to maintain contact with her, but it got no response. Finally, the Itasca called for help. People searched for Earhart and Noonan for days. Despite great efforts, they found nothing.

What happened to Amelia Earhart? No one knows for sure. During the flight, she likely headed in the wrong direction because the sun was bright and it was hard to see. Perhaps she and Noonan got lost somewhere over the Pacific. Soon after, her plane ran out of gas, and she crashed into the sea. Another idea is that Earhart might have landed on a nearby, uninhabited island called Nikumaroro, where she later died. Researchers recently brought bone-sniffing dogs to the island, though, and no human bones were found. A more extreme theory is that Earhart flew the plane to Marshall Island and later secretly returned to the United States under a new name.

The first theory seems most likely. However, none of these ideas has been proven. Today, people are still investigating Earhart’s and Noonan’s disappearance. Whatever happened, Earhart probably died as she wished, “When I go,” she once said, “I’d like best to go in my plane.”

Anna Steed doesn’t look much older than her students, but she is a practitioner of behavioral and motivational science, a shoulder to cry on, and the high school debate coach. Her class, which began as an elective class to give students exposure to skills that prepare them for college, has become the class on campus that creates winners.

Debate tests the teenage character perhaps more than any other activity. The shy and the unsure often have no desire to look up from their screens and engage in the oldest human interaction: persuasive oral arguments. It’s dreadful territory for the average teenager. Research, writing, delivering a speech in front of your peers, it all sounds like the kind of class students would be most likely to skip. But Anna draws them in.

Classroom 161 is always full. Anna’s debate teams have a case full of medals; most importantly, they have gone on to become leaders of their communities and examples to their families.

“This activity has changed my life. Just building connections with people I never, ever imagined building connections with,” relates Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez. Alexander suffered from social anxiety throughout his childhood. Then he discovered debate as a freshman, and it changed his life.

What drives young people to stand up and passionately deliver a speech in front of a crowd full of strangers, a panel of judges and opposing teams from more privileged high schools? The person who will always have their back: Anna Steed.

“I want them to just have the memory of making it through, succeeding in a place like that and expressing a story that leaves that place better,” Anna says.

That better place begins in room 161 when unsure and nervous students enter for the first time. After setbacks and adjustments, a lot of hugs, encouragement, and hours of late-night study and practice, they roll out a few years later with their shoulders back and a full tank of confidence, ready to take on the next stage of life.