I got to interview quite an extraordinary young woman this weekend, and I'd like you to meet her, too.

Katya Lyzhina was adopted from Yekaterinburg, Russia by Jan Scholl when she was 11 years old. Her father had died when she was five and her mother when she was nine. In the U.S., Katya could have easily settled into a life of video games and trips to the shopping mall and I don't think anybody would have faulted her. But that's not what she did.

Two years after she arrived in her new home in Arkansas, Katya started Hope's Miracle, a program to call attention to waiting children--around the world. "I know what it's like not to have parents," she told me. "Children need a home anywhere, so if I can make a difference in one child's life, I don't care if they are here or in South America." She spoke to people at churches and civic groups across Arkansas and, to date, she has raised $5,000 for the US Waiting Child Loan Fund, a program of the Arkansas adoption agency Families Are Special.

Again, she could have kicked back and called it quits. But last year, she started another program, Baggage Claim. It gathers new and gently used luggage and backpacks and distributes them to foster children, sparing them the embarrassment of moving their belongings in a trash bag. The program quickly went statewide and has collected 1,700 bags so far. It has also inspired similar programs across the U.S.

Now what? Katya's new idea is called Heart & Sole, and it is both simple and ingenious. Raise money for sport shoes so that foster children can participate in team sports just like every other kid. "It's really important to be on a team," she says. Katya is looking for a corporate sponsor (Nike, are you reading?) and thinks it would be great to have a shoe store on board, too (Hello Foot Locker, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority and Modell).

(Katya, I've learned, is not the only philanthropically minded teen in Arkansas. There's a whole bunch of them working under the auspices of the North Little Rock Mayor's Youth Council and you can read more about their efforts here.)

Still, I was somewhat surprised that someone so recently adopted from abroad would put so much effort into helping the children of her new homeland. Katya has been back to her former orphanage with a Methodist church outreach group, but she is very committed to her work in the U.S. "When I get out of college I will try to do more with international adoptions," she says, "but right now locally is as important as international."

To help out with any of Katya's programs, contact her mom, Jan Scholl, director of the North Little Rock Mayor's Youth Council by e-mail at NLRMYC@aol.com . Families Are Special will soon be releasing "Kid Talk", a CD that Katya recorded to help parents converse with the children they adopt from Russia. Contact the agency here.