She fought for her life, now she fights for theirs.  Born with a rare liver disease, Kendall Ciesemier understood the human struggle at a young age.  At age 11 as she underwent two liver transplants, Kendall started Kids Caring 4 Kids (KC4K), a non-profit that raises money and awareness for highly vulnerable children in Africa by inspiring youth worldwide to care for others in need.  Since its founding, KC4K has grown to support eight projects in four countries in Africa, helping better the lives of nearly 7,000 Africans, by inspiring over 7,000 kids to raise nearly one million dollars.  Through KC4K, Kendall and the kids she has inspired have built a dormitory, an orphan care center, and a community center, as well as provided over 400 specially built bikes, indoor plumbing, school supplies, medical care, healthy meals and water wells. 

In addition to Kids Caring 4 Kids, Kendall has been highly involved in the development of the new Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.  As a life-long patient, Kendall sits on a variety of planning and designing boards, discussing the exterior of the building, community partnerships and creative features, offering the “kid perspective.”  Her largest contribution is the inspiration behind the Crown Sky Garden, a state-of-the-art winter garden.  She also is an alum of the Kids Advisory Board, where she consulted with doctors, nurses, child-life specialists and food services on how to better patient care.

Kendall has been honored as Glamour Magazine’s Woman of the Year Reader’s Choice Winner, one of Glamour Magazine’s “20 Amazing Young Women” Chicago Magazine’s Chicagoan of the Year, a Prudential Top Ten Youth Volunteer, a Build-A-Bear Workshop Huggable Hero, a Discover Financial Top Scholar, a Nordstrom Scholar, a Gloria Barron Young Hero, and most recently a Google Zeitgeist Young Mind. In September of 2007, she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show with President Clinton highlighting his book Giving and her work as a young activist.  

Today, Kendall is a freshman at Georgetown University studying Sociology.  She hopes to pursue a career in broadcast journalism so she can use her voice to create effective stories that inspire others to act.  Last summer, she began to expand her experience in journalism by working as an intern for Oprah Radio and today she works as a MTV Global Correspondent, and as a blogger for Maria Shriver and Huffington Post.