Celine Yousefzadeh

Los Angeles, CA | 19

2012 Award Recipient

Celine wanted to do something to help the children of Sderot, Israel following the damage caused to their schools and community during the missile attacks launched from Gaza in 2007. Celine partnered with a fashion-forward friend to start Fashion with Compassion, a student-run charity event. Her first fashion show raised $5,000 – a check she delivered personally to the mayor of Sderot while she was studying for a semester of high school in Israel. The second show drew a crowd of 300 and raised $6,000 for Atidim, a program for advancing the underprivileged in Israel. The third show drew 600 people and raised $10,000 for Save a Child’s Heart, an Israeli-based humanitarian project that provides children with cardiac surgeries. The runway continues to be a lesson in social entrepreneurship with more than a hundred students participating as planners, stylists, and models, and with high-profile companies as sponsors. The annual show is the most successful fundraiser in Milken Community High School’s history and Celine is working to implement Fashion with Compassion in Jewish schools across the nation.