Country of Residence
United States
Age
18
Project title
Catalyst Compass: Find your direction. Build your voice. Lead the change.
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Catalyst Compass turns 10 years of youth-led, real-world leadership into a model others can use: across serving families, rescuing animals, advocating for laws, building STEM solutions, growing food, launching ventures, and leading 8 organizations and 37 programs, we are codifying what has worked into a curriculum that teaches the next generation to turn passion into action, action into impact, and impact into more leaders, creating a cycle where each leader becomes the catalyst for the next.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.thecatalystsclub.org/ https://publuu.com/flip-book/650172/1877543 https://www.linkedin.com/in/rylee-brooke-kamahele-310196325/
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Scaling (We’re expanding impact to new locations or in new and innovative ways)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
I think my real “aha” moment was realizing, while I was still a kid, that I had found my calling. None of my organizations began because I wanted to start one. They began because something happened in my life that I could not just walk away from. Love is a Verb came from being eight, wanting to serve, and being told I was too young to help. So I built the door I wished someone had opened for me, then held it open for the next kid. Secret Santa came from one of the hardest seasons my family had lived through and a Christmas that taught me how quickly life can change, and how something small to one person can mean everything to another. Promise to Our Keiki came when I realized that showing up for people mattered, but I also wanted to change why they needed help in the first place. Each one grew from something I had lived, needed, questioned, or loved. At some point, I realized I could spend hours doing this and never feel like I was working. I had found what I wanted my life to be about. For ten years, I have developed young leaders one person at a time, passing on what I learned through experience, mentorship, training, mistakes, and doing the work. Catalyst Compass takes that knowledge out of a one-on-one model and makes it accessible, equipping more youth with the tools, guidance, and real-world lessons to lead, and then equip the next young leader to do the same.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
The problem I keep seeing is not that young people do not care. There are plenty of ways for youth to volunteer, serve, and do good. What is missing are pathways that teach them how to carry what they learn beyond one program, one organization, or one cause. I know what it feels like to want to contribute and be underestimated. That is why I never wanted TCC to become a place where kids simply followed me, filled volunteer shifts, or grew into staff for us. Across eight very different organizations, we have learned that the cause may change, but the foundation does not. Young people need to know how to communicate, solve problems, take responsibility, find where their strengths fit, lead others, and keep growing. Their path should not be one-size-fits-all. Placement should reflect their interests, abilities, comfort, and readiness, then expand as their confidence and skills grow. For ten years, I have taught that foundation one young person at a time. But if that knowledge stays with me and a few experienced leaders, then I become the limit to how far it can reach. Catalyst Compass turns it into an accessible pathway youth can carry anywhere, including into work they create themselves. Our communities do not just need more volunteers. They need young people equipped to become the leaders, problem-solvers, and mentors who carry the work forward after we are gone.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Catalyst Compass turns ten years of TCC’s youth leadership model into an asynchronous pathway that can grow beyond one-on-one mentorship. Every young person begins with a foundation in character, integrity, work ethic, communication, responsibility, privacy, safety, problem-solving, teamwork, accountability, and leadership. Their pathway is then shaped around interests, abilities, comfort, readiness, and goals. Our eight organizations are different leadership laboratories. Love is a Verb lets youth create and lead their own projects or volunteer with partner organizations and learn to contribute within someone else’s work. Secret Santa teaches direct service, empathy, dignity, and privacy. Promise to Our Keiki develops civic leadership, research, advocacy, and voice. Our Leo Club builds mentorship and collaboration. Cultivate Hope teaches culture, aloha ʻāina, stewardship, and responsibility to future generations. SySTEMs Driven by Impact teaches innovation through technology. Catalysts Leadership Academy connects education to real-world purpose. Mogul in the Making equips experienced youth to build what comes next. Compass captures this through videos, lessons, worksheets, activities, assessments, and certificates. The first layer creates clear pathways through TCC and all eight organizations. It is then designed to expand into program-specific modules that build the knowledge and safety training for each role. A youth entering the Hashtag Speak Up Movement program could learn animal advocacy, legislation, pet CPR, safety, and animal behavior before stepping into that work. Today, much of this is taught directly by me or another experienced leader. Compass makes the knowledge transferable, so wherever youth enter, they develop as leaders.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Catalyst Compass is new, but the model behind it is not. For ten years, I have developed young leaders through TCC one person at a time. I have personally trained more than 100 youth, built partnerships with 30+ organizations, and grown what began as one program into eight youth-led organizations and 37 programs. The strongest proof is succession. Our entire executive team came through this pathway, and three joined before age seven. Emmalia started with us at three and now, at 13, directs Secret Santa Project Hawaiʻi and created her own Kūpuna Kits initiative. Nikky, 14, directs Love is a Verb and oversees its 12 youth-run programs. Other young leaders now manage projects, build technology, advocate for change, mentor younger youth, and create work of their own. Some are now training the next youth themselves, so the impact no longer depends on me alone. Their leadership multiplies outward. Secret Santa alone serves 500–600 kids each year, plus their families, and has reached thousands since 2016. That is why I believe Catalyst Compass will work. We are not inventing a theory and hoping youth respond. We are codifying a model that has already produced leaders. Impact will mean removing me as the gatekeeper to that knowledge so more young people can find where they belong, grow into real responsibility, and eventually become the person who equips the next leader.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Catalyst Compass takes a youth leadership model built through ten years of lived experience and turns what has depended on one-on-one mentorship into something that can scale without losing the hands-on learning behind it. If we could multiply me and our youth leaders, we would. One-on-one training is powerful, but not sustainable as TCC grows. Compass does not replace mentors or field experience. It prepares youth before they enter the field, so they arrive with the foundation, expectations, safety knowledge, and context to learn well from the leaders around them. Young people are often underestimated because they are young. Passion alone does not create credibility. Preparation does. When I began testifying and advocating, I was taken seriously because I studied issues, read legislation, gathered evidence, learned from mentors, and understood the systems I was entering. Compass builds that same expectation: do not just care, become knowledgeable enough to lead responsibly. The pedagogy is youth-informed, experiential, competency-based, and individualized. It was built by youth through real work, not designed for youth from the outside. It also translates complex systems and professional language into concepts and words children and youth can understand without watering down what they need to know. Participants learn, reflect, demonstrate understanding, apply skills in real settings, and advance based on readiness rather than age alone. This is a large, layered project. Phase One builds the shared TCC foundation and pathways through eight organizations. Later phases will expand into specialized training across 37 programs. The innovation is not replacing people. It is making sure TCC's knowledge no longer has to live in only a few people.
How many people are on your team?
9
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Our team has 9 people: me, Nyssa Correia, Jaxson Slotnick-Paige, Izaiah Nakamura, Nikky Antolin, Emmalia Tuagalu, Raiden Barrientos, Taimane Broad-Gisa, and Sasha Kamahele. I lead the framework and curriculum. Our youth leaders co-create content from lived experience, build and test lessons, and shape the pathways they know best. Sasha brings extensive youth leadership experience and guides the team as needed. We share leadership by expertise, strengths, and firsthand experience.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Over the next year, we will turn Catalyst Compass from a leadership model we practice into a curriculum youth can move through. Phase One will build the foundational learning for TCC and each of our eight organizations. We will map what youth should know before entering each pathway, then create Google Slides modules with videos, real scenarios, activities, critical-thinking questions, assessments, and certificates. Our youth team will help build and review the areas they know firsthand, while I ensure the system reflects the standards and lessons TCC has developed. We will pilot the modules with new and experienced youth, use their feedback to strengthen the content, and integrate Phase One into TCC’s onboarding, placement, and leadership advancement process. Compass will also formalize how youth move through our leadership tiers. As they complete training, gain hands-on experience, and take on greater responsibility, they will build a documented record of skills, roles, and accomplishments they can use on resumes, applications, and future opportunities. Certificates will eventually connect to a jacket-and-patch system that makes each youth’s pathway and growth visible. We will also prepare to migrate the tested curriculum to an asynchronous platform that can track progress. Phase Two will expand into deeper, program-specific training across our 37 programs.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
We activate people by making the first step small and the next step visible. A young person does not have to join TCC already seeing themselves as a leader. They might come to one service event, volunteer with a partner organization, bring a friend, or try a program that interests them. Some simply want to help. Others discover something they care deeply about and keep going. That approach has already engaged more than 100 youth and 30+ partner organizations. Youth have planned events, managed volunteers and logistics, created graphics and outreach, built technology, testified on policy, directed programs, mentored younger members, and launched projects of their own. Peer leadership is one of our strongest recruitment tools. Young people see someone close to their age actually trusted to lead, and leadership suddenly feels possible. Catalyst Compass will strengthen that process by giving every new participant a clear place to start and showing what opportunities can come next. As youth complete pathways, certificates and our future patch system will make their growth visible and give them something they can share with peers, schools, families, and future opportunities. We will also introduce Compass through TCC’s existing programs, allowing youth to enter through the cause that already matters to them rather than asking them to care about ours.
