When she returned to Colorado, she decided to take action. She began volunteering at a center of day laborers. Plus, once a week she gathers her friends to make breakfast burritos for the workers, who often struggle to make ends meet. "A free breakfast really helps," she explains.

Esther organizes the group Food Not Borders at her school, which provides about 30 to 40 burritos to the Centro de Humanitario Day Labor Center every week. While some of the day laborers may be illegal immigrants, she sees their plight from a humanitarian perspective. She believes, despite the political firestorm over the issue, that she and her friends should help these workers, some of which are homeless. "It's forming that emotional sympathy and empathy for what's happening."

"Not every kid does that," commented Esther's Spanish teacher Wren Hayes. "She really has come into her own to really take it a step further."

The high school senior somehow fits it all to her busy schedule. "She is a pretty amazing girl actually," her friend Aly Lear said proudly. "She is doing things right now that most 40 year olds chasing their wildest ambitions would not do."

"Like any teenager I spend plenty of time putting these things off and going to movies and doing the stuff that's expected of me," Esther said modestly. "I quickly realized that wasn't amounting to anything. I just feel like creating something with my life feels good."

Please join 9NEWS and College In Colorado in congratulating Esther Honig, a 2008 9Kid Who Cares.