Extending a Hand: Florida Teen Supports Displaced People and Creates Cross-Cultural Opportunities

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Carter Magnano. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light. 

Carter Magnano is on a mission. Most 17-year-olds are focused on finishing up high school and applying to colleges. While he’s managing that, too, Carter has other things on his mind. He plays varsity lacrosse–and formerly ran cross-country—but he also sets up speaking events to highlight refugee stories and build empathy in his conservative community. He enjoys going to the beach, but he also loves tutoring and supporting kids who have fled war-torn homelands and are facing barriers in their new home.  

As the co-president and a founding member of JaxTHRIVE (Teens Helping Refugees Integrate Via Engagement), he oversees between 500 and 600 volunteers from chapters across the country who have dedicated over 13,000 hours helping refugees. And he has raised over $200,000 to keep things running. Carter’s work goes beyond a friendly welcome and sets people up for future success. 

What inspired you to get started with this initiative? 

Growing up, my siblings and I volunteered at World Relief, a refugee resettlement organization. We’d help them with backpack drives, tutoring and all of that. Then, in early 2017, funding was cut, so the program was going under.  

We partnered with Kim’s Open Door, a nonprofit that supports a lot of refugee families, then founded JaxTHRIVE with Super Saturday events. From nine to one ever other Saturday, around 30 volunteers teach science, art, math and STEM to a similar number of refugee students ages 4 to 17. And then they play soccer. 

Once we build connections with them, we offer individual tutoring via Zoom. We often stay connected with them through college and their career paths to see whatever they need help with. We reach kids all over the nation on Zoom now.  

Tell us about your volunteer role with JaxTHRIVE. 

I’m the co-president of the JaxTHRIVE Leadership Council, which unites JaxTHRIVE clubs from different schools and helps run community events. It’s basically oversight of the whole program. Also, within Ponte Vedra high school, I serve as the president of our school club, which runs things like holiday basket drives and initiatives getting people from our school directly involved.  

Recently, the Leadership Council had a training with 60 to 70 people at the University of North Florida. We gave them an overview of JaxTHRIVE and got them involved. And my co-president, Sarah Park, and I published a children’s book we co-authored called New Beginnings: Refugee Children’s Tales of Hope and Resilience. It’s a children’s book, so kids can understand what the term “refugee” means and empathize with these individuals from an early age.  

What is JaxTHRIVE Journeys?  

JaxTHRIVE Journeys is an in-person lecture series where refugees speak to people about their country, their culture and their journey here. They highlight volatile political situations and other crises that lead to forced migration, often as they unfold. In the past, we’ve heard from a vascular surgeon and clerical advocates from Syria, a Lost Boy from Sudan, a panel of former Afghan fighter pilots and visiting Ukrainian physicians. It’s typically more adults who will come to these events, but there are also a lot of students. 

Where I live, people aren’t very educated about the plight of refugees, but JaxTHRIVE Journeys helps eliminate the stigma and teaches people about what refugees really are and what they’ve been through. A lot of communities associate refugees with undocumented immigrants and feel that they’re here illegally. They’re not. And they’re not coming here for a better financial life or to try something new. They’ve been forcibly displaced from their homes. This program changes the way people interact with others and how they empathize with refugees. 

You’ve gone global. How did that start? 

Every summer, we have people from Iraq who come in an exchange program. It started on Zoom during COVID. Now, we can see them face-to-face before they visit other places around the US.  

We get to know them on a personal level and stay in contact through social media. Recently, we also had four or five Israeli students come and talk to community members through Spread Cream Cheese Not Hate, a local nonprofit. The Iraqi students and the Israeli students were here at the same time and wanted to meet each other but, due to their schedules, couldn’t. So, we set up a Zoom. People often think nations with conflicting paths are filled with people who wouldn’t like people of the other nation, but in reality, there are hundreds of examples, many at JaxTHRIVE, where that just isn’t true. 

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization? 

I hope, wherever I go to college, I can start a JaxTHRIVE club there and expand the organization. It’s going to be harder to be as involved with what’s going on here, but there are a lot of very involved younger people to pass the torch to. 

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work? 

The thing that has impacted my life and changed the way I think has been getting to know people from all over the world and seeing how a lot of the stuff I take for granted, they would give up their lives for. I feel like I’ve won the lottery being born where I am, because a lot of these students had lives very similar to mine before they were forcibly displaced. I’m very grateful for what I have, and I feel like it’s my duty to help others in need.  

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about. 

In the beginning of September, we’ll restart Super Saturdays and ramp up student tutoring. This summer, we’ve focused on SAT and ACT tutoring. Our next big program is a financial literacy class for young refugees in partnership with Vystar on September 18.  

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about? 

Everybody needs to find what they’re passionate about. A lot of times, people have undiscovered interests because they haven’t been exposed to them. Getting out of your comfort zone and doing something new is incredibly rewarding, and it can change the way you think about yourself. When you get involved in something that you truly care about, it changes your life.  

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Carter? Find local volunteer opportunities.