What started as a project for one student quickly turned into a labor of love for four of Clarissa Ngo’s creative writing pupils.

Ngo is the founder and teacher of Magic Pen Kids, a creativity, writing and mentoring center in Irvine, Calif. After learning about the IWitness Video Challenge, which asks students to make short videos documenting the positive change they create in their own communities, inspired by the testimonies of genocide survivors, she was drawn to its focus on allowing children to find their passion by helping others.

“IWitness not only inspires children to embark upon service projects, but also it gives them a voice to tell the world what they have discovered about their journey toward light,” Ngo said. “School can sometimes be so much about regurgitation and Scantrons that we forget that the most important thing we should teach our kids is to find a purposeful passion.”

For his project, 17-year-old Kevin El Basri was inspired by Holocaust survivor Paula Lebovics, in which Lebovics describes a Russian soldier’s simple act of kindness that reminded her that people cared about her. “That someone's faith in humanity can be restored by such a simple act was what inspired my students to see what they could do,” Ngo said.

Ngo said she starts each student’s projects by asking them what they love. For El Basri, that was monkeys.

El Basri decided to write a children’s book about a capuchin monkey who wants to go to the real-life Monkey College in Boston, which trains capuchin monkeys to be companions for the disabled. Proceeds from the book will be donated to Monkey College. Ngo’s student Andrea Chang, 11, stepped up to illustrate the book.

“I think she locked herself up in her room for quite a few months to finish it by the deadline, and the results are spectacular.  Andrea's illustrations really brought Kevin's book to life,” Ngo said.

Tony Zeng, 14, and Peter Robinson, 16, served as the director and editors of the IWitness Challenge video documenting El Basri’s project.

“Tony cared so much about it that he was editing it even as he was walking out the door with his mother on my stairs,” Ngo said.

Finally, seven of Ngo’s other students offered advice about the video’s music.

Ngo said the most important lesson her students learned from completing the IWitness Video Challenge was that you don’t always need to do a lot to transform someone’s life.

“Sometimes the prospect of being the kind of person who changes other people's lives can be a little intimidating,” Ngo said. “Paula Lebovics’ testimony showed it could be as simple as a heartfelt hug and sharing bread.”

Watch the video, “Passion and Purpose: How a Holocaust Survivor Inspired Teens to Save Lives” here

From top: Andrea Chang, Kevin El Basri, Peter Robinson, Tony Zeng