Kendall Ciesemier, a junior at Wheaton North High School in suburban Chicago, says she’s just an “average girl who wants to make a difference.”  For the past five years, she’s been doing just that.
Since 2004, Ciesemier has championed a cause to raise awareness and funds for AIDS orphans and African children in need. It all started in 2003 when she saw an Oprah Christmas special about the plight of AIDS orphans in Africa.  At just age 11 years old, Ciesemier felt she had to do something to help. So she adopted a child through World Vision using her own savings of $360.00.

A few months later, Ciesemier faced her own hardship. Born with a liver disease, she underwent two transplants and learned firsthand how fragile and challenging life can be. Her heart went out to the African kids she had grown to love who face immense difficulties every day. So she organized her effort, calling it Kids Caring 4 Kids (KC4K), and asked people to send donations instead of flowers or gifts. She started by adopting a community in Zambia through an international relief organization, and now has grown KC4K to support more than five top organizations working on behalf of the children.

Over the years, Ciesemier has inspired several thousands of students to raise funds individually or in groups to help vulnerable children in Africa. To date, Kids Caring 4 Kids has received over $750,000 in donations. These funds benefit carefully selected projects in Africa that impact kids’ lives in a significant way.

Ciesemier and Kids Caring 4 Kids has drawn the attention of national media and earned her a number of awards. In 2007, President Bill Clinton came to Wheaton North High School to honor and whisk her away to appear with him on the Oprah Winfrey Show. That same year, she received the Prudential Spirit of Community Award as one of the “Top 10 Youth Volunteers” in the U.S., and “Chicago” magazine named Ciesemier one of its Chicagoans of the Year.  Most recently, she was selected by Build-a-Bear Workshop as one of their 12 Huggable Heroes for 2009.

An honors student, Ciesemier has been active in cross country, school newspaper, speech team, and the Children’s Memorial Hospital Kids Advisory Board (Chicago). She has been president of her class, tennis team captain, and involved with the Flock, a group of students who mentor special needs kids.

Kendall hopes to study English or journalism in college and someday host her own talk show. Her focus? To shed light on issues in our world and the ways people, particularly young people, are making a difference.  But right now, she is championing a national campaign to raise $1 million and involve more than 10,000 students in providing hope and care to African children in need. 
“I want kids here to experience their own greatness through giving and caring for vulnerable kids in Africa,” says Kendall. “And for the kids in Africa, I want to give them hope and opportunity to become leaders in their own countries. For many, that begins by just having the essentials in life.”

Ciesemier lives in suburban Chicago with her parents, Mike and Ellery, and brother Connor.