TODAY’s streaming channel Today All Day is taking that to heart, illuminating devoted teens with herculean mirrors. On March 22 at 11 a.m. ET, the series is premiering Tomorrow’s Voices. The special matches teens dedicated to giving back with role models in fields related to their passions. Hosted by Hoda Kotb, the show matches five students from across the nation with Today anchors, including  Carson Daly, Al Roker and Craig Melvin, who offer their personal wisdom and pro tips. The students also receive media training through the network’s recently launched NBCU Academy, a multi-platform journalism training and development program for college students, and Comcast, the show’s sponsor and NBC’s parent company that helped find all of the students involved through its Internet Essentials program aimed at bridging the digital divide. If that wasn’t enough, the students are also paired with surprise hero collaborators. We’re talking mic drop heroes—think Mark Cuban, Jewel, Frank Abney, Andrew Zimmern, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms—to inspire the teens and offer tools to take on their mission to give back to their communities. During the special, Kotb teams up with Ashis Dhakal, a Nepalese refugee from Salt Late City, who born and raised in a refugee camp in Jhapa, Nepal. Ever since he was a child, he has dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur and building a multimillion dollar business and help needy people in developing nations. “What I can do is better others so they can give back to their community,” Dhakal tells Kotb in the segment. “As a young child going through poverty, I was in the same shoes as they are right now.” For Kotb, so much of the joy is seeing the teens getting extra attention to help nurture their talents. “These deserving teens are super smart, amazing kids," says Kotb, who insists that she and her co-anchors are just a conduit to help the kids get noticed. “I don’t think the successful people are necessarily the most talented or the most educated, or any of those things because I wasn’t either,” Kotb said at the Garden of Dreams Talent Show in 2015. “I think it’s really the kids who don’t stop. If you have a will and you love it, I think that’s three-fourths of it. Talent doesn’t win. Persistence wins. Perseverance wins.” Of the kids in the new special, she told Parade.com, “They come from underserved areas and just need a spotlight on them. I believe that they have learned all their great things from their backgrounds, families and love in their neighborhoods. I think they would be successful with or without us. But I’m sure happy they’re letting us go along for the ride with them.” Parade.com chatted with Kotb to learn more about Tomorrow’s Voices, the teen she’s mentoring, her personal roles models and much more. Tell us more about Ashis, the Nepalese refugee who wants to be the next Mark Cuban. He grew up in horrible conditions living under a thatched roof where rain would come in. Then he came to Utah. Ashis doesn’t want any kid to live like he lived…When we asked who he looked up to. You don’t know who someone is going to choose, like a celebrity or movie star. He said, Mark Cuban. He wanted a businessman, someone who could get his engine running. Someone who he wanted to emulate. The kids are all about philanthropy. They have these beautiful gifts and want to bring them back to their communities. Mark Cuban just gave him a little extra nudge. And, of course, with every goal Mark set, Ashis said, “Yes. That was already in the rear view mirror. What’s next?” What do you hope hope viewers get from Tomorrow’s Voices? The future is in excellent hands. That is what I felt when I was talking to these kids. They are aware of what is going on in the country and the world. They are trying to figure out ways to give back. I think about myself at 16. I was working at Scoops trying to make money so I could get a jacket. You look at these students and they are finding their talents early. A young woman, Jasmine Chesbro, sings a duet with Jewel. You want to weep because she is so musically talented. I don’t feel that we deserve one ounce of credit. We are bringing people’s eyes to something already in plain sight. Who mentored you and helped shape who you are? Mentors are important. In every stage and era of my life, I found someone in that environment who could teach me. I don’t even know if they knew that they were mentoring me, but I found the best journalists and saw what they were doing. I tried to take whatever that was and apply it to my life in some way. Other than my mom, who still is shaking her two pom moms for me now, there wasn’t one person. In each stage of your life, you evolve and grow. There are different people who are going to help and elevate you. I also believe you are the sum total of the five people you spend the most time with, so choose wisely. That may be my secret superpower. I choose really good friends. Most people throughout my life have helped, guided and mentored me. Professionally, I think of when I worked at WQAD and Chris Minor helped me. I watched her and she coached me. In each stage of my life, there was somebody different. How do you teach your children to give back? It’s funny. I said to [fianc é] Joel [Schiffman], “I think I know how we can we can get our kids to be of service.” I asked Maria Shriver’s brother Mark [Kennedy Shriver] how did their parents, Eunice and Sargent, raise kids who could be of service. And he said, “My parents never mentioned the word ‘service.’ They just did it. They worked on the Special Olympics, on The Peace Corps.” And I realized that our kids are already watching us. If we give at the food bank, they watch us give. We’re not doing it so they’ll watch us. We’re doing it to do it. And then they see us and think, “Oh, that is what we do. That is who we are. That is what we are about.” The way we are trying to teach them to be of service is just to be of service. And then, we up our game and be more of it. Check out a clip of Hoda Kotb’s time with Ashis Dhakal and keep scrolling for previews of interviews with the other teens highlighted in the series. Next, See How Hoda and Jenna Bush Hager Are Surviving the Pandemic

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