The Community Spotlight shines a light on an outstanding community member who is active, helpful and propels our community forward. 

Congratulations to @ryanalmusawi on being our February Community Spotlight member! Ryan is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of dream: success, a nonprofit working to bring education to every child on the planet. Dream: success is a spin-off nonprofit Ryan started at  11 years old called Charitable Crusaders. Charitable Crusaders was a charity created to get youth involved in their communities. Former President Barack Obama and Olympic medalist Michael Phelps recognized Ryan and his organization for their commitment to giving back.

Fun Fact: In April, I will be traveling to all 50 states as part of a social media challenge to raise $1M to fund our first education project in Uganda: a school for up to 700 children.

What’s your favorite account to follow on social right now? Definitely Oatly…their copy/branding/marketing is EVERYTHING!!!

When it comes to your work, where do you find inspiration? 

Ah, such a loaded question! I find inspiration from SO much…first, my dad immigrated to the U.S. from Iraq when he was a teenager with virtually just the clothes on his back. He worked extremely hard and built up a business of convenience stores around Dallas-Fort Worth, so I certainly get my ambition and work ethic from him. Also, watching the strength of my selfless single mom provide for my sister and I definitely served as an example of how we should lead our lives…no matter who it was, I was ALWAYS surrounded by hard work!

I also have to shout out many mentors and teachers I've had throughout my life. One teacher in particular (from middle school), Mrs. Prevallet, has shown me an example of how EVERY teacher should be and why supporting kids is the most powerful thing we can do for our future. Her drive, dedication, and generosity were unmatched. She treated every student like her own and believed in her students when they sometimes didn't even believe in themselves. EVERYONE deserves to have a Mrs. Prevallet in their lives.

If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? Easy…chicken fried steak with LOADS of gravy!

Top reason why you’re a Sprout user: BECAUSE IT MAKES OUR LIVES 1100% EASIER. Social media is about to be the heart of EVERYTHING we do. When we launch our nationwide campaign, Dreaming around America, Sprout will give us SO much of our time back, so we can focus on raising the money necessary to fund life-changing education projects around the globe.

Also, Sprout's analytics provides us with the information necessary to make data-driven decisions so we can tweak our social strategy in real-time and put out the BEST content that resonates with our audience. While we're small now, we're confident that, with Sprout, we'll grow our community faster and more efficiently — so we can focus on our ambition of bringing education to every child on the planet.

Where can folks connect with you outside the Arboretum? They can visit our website at dreamsuccess.org and can connect with me on LinkedIn. They can also follow dream: success on Instagram @dreamsuccess or TikTok @dreamsuccesshq