| Current
involvement:
These
are the organizations with whom I'm currently involved. This
is where I spend a fair amount of my free time. Though sometimes
it seems like a revolving door of non-profits, I do try to stick
with a core set. I'm not very good at building houses or ladling
soup, so I tend to help out by raising funds for, and awareness
of, organizations and their causes. I hope I'm better at that.
Health
Jam (2003 - Present)
I've been on Health
Jam's Board of Directors since January 2003. As part of
the Board, I mostly work in a strategic planning capacity and
then sit on one of the committees. Lately, I've been involved
in helping organize special events to raise funds for the organization.
Stonewall
Community Foundation
(2006 - Present)
I've been involved with Stonewall
in a number of ways, either as part of the Host Committee for
REVEL, Stonewall's annual young donor event, or as a co-Chair
of Quarter
Share, Stonewall's "vehicle for young donors to flex
their collective philanthropic muscles."
DonorsChoose.org (ongoing)
I don't do any specific work with this organization, but I've donated to some projects. DonorsChoose.org is a great site that lets you support teachers and their classroom needs. I'm sure most would agree that the American education system is sub-par in a number of ways. Here's a way to directly help the situation, in a small but impactful way
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Past
Projects:
Live
Out Loud (2006
- 2007)
I
was drawn to Live
Out Loud because of its mission to create positive role
models in the GLBT community and empower youth to become role
models for subsequent generations. I helped the organization
on the Marketing & Advertising Committee primarily through
identifying media partners and securing advertising space in
magazines and websites. The annual gala event, where five scholarships
were awarded to outstanding youth, was held on May 22nd.
GMHC
/ AIDS Walk (2005
- 2006)
HIV/AIDS
awareness and prevention is an issue that's close to my heart,
having lost a close friend to AIDS in 2006. It's an that still
needs significant attention and resources. More and more it
seems, anecdotally at least, that HIV infection is on the rise
despite prevention and education efforts by numerous organizations.
GMHC, however, also provides services further down the pipeline,
including counseling and health information to those living
with the virus, which I think is extremely important. Thanks
to everyone who supported and sponsored me.
Center
for Talented Youth (2004)
The
Center
for Talented Youth partnered with the Goldman
Sachs Foundation to create a mentoring program for 'gifted'
13-14 year old students. The goal was to teach them relevant
business skills through a business plan competition, which would
be judged by executives from the Goldman Sachs Foundation.
I
volunteered as a mentor, meeting with the team for one Saturday
a month over the course of six months. After being considered
the longshot throughout those six months, our team's plan ended
up winning first place in the competition. So the moral of the
story is that just because you goof off and have fun, it doesn't
mean that you can't create a solid business plan grounded in
reality... and beat out the competition.
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