Ian Somerhalder, activist and Vampire Diaries star, turns 35 today. Somerhalder has inspired many through his works as an activist, optimist, and social good champion. Here are five particularly powerful ways that Somerhalder has taught me to live life.

Whether you are saving elephants by banning the ivory trade in Thailand with WWF or speaking up for a cause you are passionate about. all our collaborative efforts have true meaning and power, so use them wisely.

Living in a society where personal projection, ego-management and soft-skills account for much of one's success, I wonder to what extent will celebrity status motivate future online activists?

We Care Act has engaged over 20,000 people from 17 countries and helped over 14,000 kids recover from natural disasters. Through my work, I've realized that service is power.

Being a woman is a great opportunity but also a responsibility, because our society is so far from being equal and united. Great changes are the result of little actions by each person. What you are waiting for?

The LGBTQTSGNC contingent's May Day march marks an important moment in the confluence of LGBTQ, immigrant rights, and economic justice movements. Increasingly, LGBTQ organizations have brought light to migrant and worker issues within LGBTQ community organizing.

I met Adam Yauch only once. It was during a bathroom break, which came at the end of a heated session in a Tibet-China conference at Harvard in 2002. We greeted each other in Tibetan.

U.S. college students, Chris Temple and Zach Ingrasci, take us on a journey into the realities of poverty as they live on a dollar a day in Guatemala in their documentary Into Poverty: Living on One Dollar.

When we stop to consider all we owe to those who sacrifice for our liberty, I doubt that military family members are at the forefront of our thoughts. They should be.

Not too long ago, I met a woman who was volunteering to build a Habitat house. Owning a decent, affordable home had changed her life, and she wanted to do whatever she could to help make that dream a reality for other families.

It's an unusual safari lodge that can attract you by its infectious enthusiasm for nature and keep you involved by its infectious enthusiasm for giving.

Audrey is a mother of two young boys. She's 32 and works in a government department. Our lives have a lot in common -- family, work, friends. But in Tanzania, where she lives, being a mother comes with a whole different set of problems.

Compassion fatigue has an antidote. True, we can become weary of the seemingly infinite number of problems plaguing our fellow humans. But that same interconnectedness allows us do more than just learn about what's happening around the world. We can learn from it.

In the United States, we can practically start planning our kids' birthdays from the day they come home from the hospital; deaths in childhood are quite rare. In Ghana, though, you can't take a child's fifth birthday for granted.

At a time of increasing social need and tight fiscal restraints across the country, we need more opportunities for service -- through programs like AmeriCorps or others -- to continue to foster the social entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

While it's obvious why these extreme acts of kindness tug at heartstrings around the world, I can't help wonder why these kids are thinking about social issues at such a young age.