Think about the causes you care about the most. Maybe it’s empowering girls to advocate for their own health, helping furry friends find their forever homes or keeping our beautiful Earth clean. Now imagine what it’d be like to turn that passion into an IRL movement that creates meaningful change in your community.

For 18-year-old Sydney Assil, giving back is her everyday. The Los Angeles-based teen is making an international impact with The Honey Project, a nonprofit organization that uses beekeeping to support schools, students and families in underserved communities.

Now, the teen queen bee behind the mission is sharing how she turned her passion into purpose—and how you can make a buzz in your own community, too.

Sydney’s idea struck after a family trip to Peru, which started as a mission to donate school supplies and connect with locals. After witnessing the under-resourced schools firsthand, the experience became the very foundation for The Honey Project.

For Sydney, being hands-on was important. “I really liked the idea of creating something sustainable,” she says. “I didn’t want to have something that relied only on fundraising.”

So she designed a system that funds the training and equipping of bee boxes for communities in Peru. “We train and hire beekeepers in the local community—like parents of students from the schools,” Sydney explains. “The harvested honey from those hives is sold, and the profits go toward classroom essentials.”

With the profits from the honey, The Honey Project was able to build a library, provide books and start teaching English to children.

The experience has taught Sydney plenty about the feel-good energy that comes from giving back. One of her favorite Honey Project memories? When two little boys asked for her phone number so she could help them learn English. “Speaking English is really important for them to earn higher paying jobs. These kids are so passionate. They’re ambitious and they care about learning,” she says. After that heartfelt moment, Sydney spent two years teaching English remotely to children in Peru, an experience she describes as incredibly moving.

Even with all of The Honey Project’s wins, Sydney’s not afraid to admit that building a successful nonprofit can be tough—especially when you care so much about the cause. “You can’t rely on everyone else around you to pull through with the same effort that you would,” she says. “I need to constantly be going above and beyond for myself and checking every box. And never putting all my eggs into one basket.” 

The Honey Project’s efforts don’t stop in Peru: The organization’s impact has recently expanded to her hometown of Los Angeles.

In 2025, devastating wildfires affected her community—even people Sydney knew personally. “I know people that I’ve grown up with who had their lives burned down and lost everything they have,” she says. Sydney knew she wanted to do something to help her neighbors, so she organized a donation drive to provide people with everyday essentials like clothing, shampoo and toothbrushes.

She also wanted to help the schools affected by the fires. “I formed our peer mentoring program, which has extended its impact into three different schools across L.A.,” Sydney explains. “I’m really excited to keep growing it and hopefully stay involved even when I go to college next year.”

Looking forward, Sydney hopes to continue expanding The Honey Project and bring her mission to an “official base in Los Angeles that’s more directly aligned with the kind of work that we do in Peru,” she shares. “I want to have an actual community of bee boxes here and use the funds from that to make a similar impact with infrastructure and school supplies, like we’re able to do in Peru.” 

Now that’s a sweet idea we can totally get behind.

Stay up to date with Sydney and The Honey Project on Instagram!

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