Country of Residence
United States
Age
17
Project title
Opportunity Orbit
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Opportunity Orbit is a global youth-led organization that helps low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students discover, understand, and pursue educational and professional opportunities. We combine curated opportunity listings, practical guides, student interviews, a biweekly newsletter, organizational partnerships, and local chapters so students receive not just information, but guidance, skills, and community.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
https://www.instagram.com/opportunity_orbit_/ https://linktr.ee/OpportunityOrbit?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=8cd1b2b9-7bce-47a3-a9c0-535c84b97b0b https://www.tiktok.com/@opportunityorbit
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Growth (We’ve moved past the very first activities and are beginning to have consistent weekly or monthly impact)
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?
One moment stays with me. During my freshman year of high school, I walked home alone in the dark for about an hour after a tennis tournament because I could not reliably get a ride. I had joined the girls’ JV tennis team, but practices and tournaments ended at times my family could not accommodate. I used an inexpensive racket from Target, and other students sometimes made fun of it. That walk home was when I first understood that opportunity is not just about whether something exists. It is about whether you can afford it, get to it, and feel like you belong. I moved from China to the United States in 2019 without speaking English. I come from a low-income, first-generation, single-parent household, so many programs were unaffordable, and I often had to navigate financial aid and applications alone. Programs like Kode With Klossy, UCSD Summer Camp, and the Stanford Middle School Scholars Program showed me how transformative accessible opportunities can be. At Kode With Klossy, my group presentation examined how socioeconomic status affects extracurricular participation. Those experiences accumulated into a clear belief. Capable students are not lacking ambition. They are lacking access, guidance, and community. I connected with my co-founder through an online group chat, discovered we shared a hometown, and began building Opportunity Orbit.
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Educational inequality is not only about whether students have access to schools. It is also about the resources, preparation, and support they receive outside the classroom. Some students can afford private tutoring, speech and debate training, mock trial lessons, athletic coaching, and music lessons, while others pursue the same activities without comparable preparation. Transportation and family responsibilities can prevent students from participating even when they have earned a place. Research from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development documents these gaps in advanced coursework and extracurricular participation, and the issue connects to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 on Quality Education and Goal 10 on Reduced Inequalities. The students most affected are often low-income, first-generation, immigrant, and underrepresented students, including those in under-resourced schools and community college transfer students. These students often lack not only money, but also information, preparation, and networks. They may not know which programs exist, how to apply, or who to ask for help. I saw this through Kode With Klossy, where I met students whose schools offered few or no STEM courses, including girls who felt isolated in their classrooms. The problem is unequal access to guidance, resources, and community.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
We help students move from discovering an opportunity to actually pursuing it. We share curated opportunity listings on Instagram and through our newsletter, covering scholarships, internships, academic programs, competitions, and extracurricular activities with plain-language explanations of eligibility, deadlines, and how to apply. We create practical guides on topics such as SAT fee waivers, financial aid documents, recommendation letters, cold emailing, resumes, and LinkedIn profiles, which is the knowledge that is often assumed but rarely taught. We publish student interviews with community college transfer students, scholarship recipients, organization founders, and professionals so students can see alternative pathways and learn from people who faced similar challenges. We collaborate with 46 organizations to share specialized opportunities, volunteer events, conferences, and free programs that match our audience’s interests. We also support local chapters in Texas, Maryland, California, Tanzania, and Indonesia, where student founders receive training, ready-to-use graphics, recruitment support, and ongoing guidance to build region-specific opportunity resources and workshops. In action, a student might see a scholarship post, read our guide on application essays, subscribe to the newsletter for deadlines, and join a chapter workshop for peer support. Our internship program also gives students hands-on experience in social media, outreach, and professional communication. Our online resources are free, and chapter activities are designed to be low-cost or free, which reduces transportation and cost barriers for students who cannot easily travel.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Opportunity Orbit has grown from an idea built by two students into an operating international organization with measurable reach and early signs of student action. Our Instagram has more than 5,400 followers and reaches approximately 460,000 accounts per month, where we have shared more than 380 educational, professional, and extracurricular opportunities and produced eight Reels on accessible programs. Our biweekly newsletter gained more than 270 subscribers after its first issue, and we have published seven interviews with community college transfer students, scholarship recipients, organization founders, and professionals to show alternative pathways. We have built 46 organizational collaborations that connect students with specialized resources and volunteer events, and our advisory board includes two college student advisors studying Cellular and Molecular Biology at UC Berkeley and Economics at Boston University. Our chapter network now includes Texas, Maryland, California, Tanzania, and Indonesia with 14 chapter officers in total. We hosted one financial literacy event and developed educational content covering financial literacy, college applications, academic programs, and career exploration.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Opportunity Orbit began as a platform for sharing opportunities, but our understanding of unequal access developed over time. We realized students may still need help understanding application requirements, developing professional skills, finding alternative pathways, or connecting with people who faced similar challenges. So we built one system combining listings, guides, student interviews, a newsletter, organizational partnerships, and local chapters. What makes our approach different is how we combine reach with relationship. Many accounts share opportunities, but few pair that with guidance, storytelling, and local support. Our interviews feature community college transfer students who show alternative pathways to a four-year university, and our newsletter and guides add practical support on cold emailing, resumes, and college deadlines. Our chapter model is the clearest example of creative execution. We do not simply allow students to create affiliated accounts and leave them alone. We provide one-on-one training, ready-to-use graphics, recruitment materials, and ongoing communication, and we help founders research content relevant to their own communities. That mix of resources and local ownership lets chapters become real student-led communities rather than brand affiliates. Early recruitment challenges, time zones, and communication styles taught us clearer responsibilities, incremental deadlines, and regular check-ins. We are still experimenting, and each chapter designs initiatives for its own community, while longer term we want a mentorship program matched by background, interests, and career goals. What makes Opportunity Orbit meaningful is that we address not only the lack of information, but also the lack of guidance, exposure, and community.
How many people are on your team?
99
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Me, 17 executive leads across eight departments, eight interns in Social Media and Outreach, two college advisors including my co-founder, seven chapter founders, 14 chapter officers, and 50 registered members who joined our form to volunteer as opportunities open. Executive leads and interns run daily operations, chapter founders build local teams and design regional initiatives with our training, and I provide onboarding, check-ins, and incremental deadlines while members own their work.
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, I am turning reach into measurable outcomes. Each of our seven chapter founders will run at least two activities and report attendance. Texas plans to host virtual workshops on scholarships, essays, resumes plus a peer resource network where students share opportunities for the chapter. Maryland is planning monthly meetings, scholarship workshops, and community partnerships. California is planning speaker sessions and volunteer drives, and our Tanzania and Indonesia founders have proposed locally relevant workshops and volunteer drives connected to the opportunities we share. I also want the newsletter and interview initiative on a consistent schedule, with a goal of more than ten interviews each month, each intern ending with a completed project, and at least three of our 46 partnerships producing a specific shared activity rather than cross-promotion alone. We will launch an outcome survey asking students whether they discovered, applied to, or received an opportunity through us, and report the results honestly, including where we fell short. Our website will launch this year. Over the next few years, I hope to build a network of more than 100 student-led chapters across all 50 U.S. states and internationally. I also want to explore an Assistance Fund that could provide needs-based grants for transportation, technology, internet access, and program fees.
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 encourage students to engage through our Instagram, newsletter, interviews, organizational collaborations, internship program, and chapter network. So far 99 people are involved. Our 17 executive leads, eight interns, two college advisors, seven chapter founders, 14 chapter officers, and I run active operations, while 50 additional members have registered through our membership form to volunteer as opportunities become available. Our biweekly newsletter already reaches more than 270 subscribers, and our membership form keeps bringing in students who want to volunteer. Chapter founders recruit their own teams, and interns own social media and outreach projects rather than only shadowing. We share scholarships, internships, and extracurricular opportunities alongside guides on applications and college deadlines, so students learn about both the opportunities and the barriers that make them hard to access. Students can also apply for executive team or internship positions, join our membership form, or start a chapter in their own region, which is how our founders in Tanzania and Indonesia joined. Our outreach database of more than 120 students supports chapter interest and internship recruitment. Our goal is a community where students do not simply receive information but contribute resources, develop leadership skills, and help others discover opportunities.
