By Shruti Rajkumar (Next Gen is a year-long project profiling up and coming leaders in the Japanese American community. It is made possible with the support of the Henry and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation). At age 16, Rosemary McDonnell-Horita joined her first Youth Leadership Forum for students with disabilities. It was the first time she realized that there’s a community of people fighting for disabled people, which sparked her interest in being an advocate.