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While doing some research late into his sophomore year, current senior Dwayne Famina noticed something strange.

Every student who got into top schools, such as UCLA, Harvard or Yale, had some type of passion project.

Passion projects are becoming more popular every year in the college admissions world. With projects varying from campus to national events or organizations, passion projects help make students stand out, showcasing their leadership ability.

For Famina, he didn’t have a project, just a passion for children and humanities.

“After thinking about it for a long time I decided that my passion project would be educating the youth in civics and politics,” he said.

So after several months, Famina was able to get his passion project, Civic Stars, off the ground.

Civic Stars aims to teach the youth across California through workshops covering all aspects of government, from local to national.

Famina believes that working to explain such complex topics with children of such a young age wouldn’t be possible without extreme patience.

“Working with kids really just comes down to being open to any questions that might come up,” he said.

Additionally, the success of the lessons comes from how they are taught.

“I think just knowing what topics they need to know and keying in on it is where you find the most success,” he said. “You don’t have to get into specifics of numbers or dates, it really is just the concept as a whole.”

For Quinn Hutchison, Chief Operating Officer of Civic Star and a senior at Valley International Preparatory High School, teaching civics is easy if you become a storyteller.
“I feel like a lot of it comes down to creating stories to the best of your ability,” he said. “Obviously, lecturing isn’t particularly interesting, nor is it very engaging when it comes down to kids, especially when talking about complicated subjects.”

While Famina, Hutchinson and all the students running Civic Stars are committed and passionate about the company and what it stands for, they often struggle to get other students to join.

“A big problem is trying to find people who are truly interested in Civic Stars,” Hutchinson said. “We get a lot of people who are very interested in joining for the wrong reasons. A lot of people have different goals with the program. Sometimes our goals don’t align.”

This makes the interviewing process more complex, as the team must work hard to find a candidate’s true intentions.

“It’s hard to navigate who actually wants to do this,” Famina said. “Are they as passionate as we are for educating youth and civics? Or do they really just want to put it on a college app?”

Both Famina and Huchinson agree they are involved in Civic Stars for more than college clout, with both planning to stay with the program past graduation, helping to expand the program nationally.

“I don’t see this as a one time thing,” Famina said. “I don’t see this just for college apps. I see this as a duty that I have to fulfill. If I want to be someone who helps kids, then I have to do this, because this is something that will be looming in their future. They need to be educated in terms of the political climate of our nation.”

Hutchinson explained Civic Stars is so important, because children are the future, and they need to be educated on the future as early as possible.

“A lot of voters in this country won’t decide who they’re voting for until those last two weeks,” Hutchinson said. “They don’t tune in, they have no interest in tuning in or they’re just not going to vote at all, because they don’t find it interesting. However, it’s far easier to convince a child who maybe hasn’t seen the realities of politics yet to vote and make a change. So if we get more kids in on something like this, I think it will end up slowly healing our nation.”

While students search for passion projects they can create to boost their own college applications, Hutchinson encourages students to reach for the stars when starting.

“I think that it might feel daunting to start,” he said. “It seems like something way out of your reach. But if you are truly interested in creating a passion project, and you love it as much as we love Civic Stars, go for it.”

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2024 print edition.