Jenna Lizerbram learned about the powerful impact of small, kind gestures. As her traditional bat mitzvah project, 12-year old Jenna began to write letter to a young boy with leprosy through the Rising Star Outreach program in India. Wanting to make more of a difference, Jenna and her older brother Noah came up with the idea to combine her love of music and desire to raise money for underprivileged kids – YouthJamz, “youth helping youth through music.”

Today, Jenna is a senior in high school in Carlsbad, CA, and Youth Jamz has held four concerts, raised $16,000 and reached 900 kids in San Diego, India and the Congo with musical instruments, lessons and education. Through this program, Jenna and her family traveled to Chennai, India to visit one of the music programs she and her brother started with Rising Star Outreach, serving 220 children impacted by leprosy. Using this program as a prototype, Jenna plans to create a similar program for kids impacted by war in the Congo. “Music has an incredible therapeutic quality,” said Lizerbram, who plays the piano, guitar and ukulele. “We get to combine our two passions: music and philanthropy.” Jenna plans to take YouthJamz with her to college – wherever that may be – and start a second club there. Like her idol Shakira – who has given back to her home country of Colombia by establishing schools for poor children – Jenna understands the power of education and creating new opportunities for underprivileged kids. “Seeing how happy the kids were from learning just one song that we taught them, that inspired me to go on,” she said.

Jenna Linzerbram is truly a teentrepreneur who is harnessing her passions to change the world.

For more information: http://www.jta.org/2014/02/27/life-religion/teen-heroes/jenna-lizerbram-combines-her-passions-for-music-and-philanthropy.