Inspiring and activating a new generation of givers. I help people who want to donate by matching them with nonprofit organizations that align with their values and issues they are passionate about. I connect and motivate people give more.
It’s no surprise that entering high school presents many new stresses for your teenager. The average student can be easily overwhelmed with thoughts of their social life, intense homework load, extracurricular activities, and college entrance exams. The last thing on your teenagers’ mind is how they will complete the community service hours that most high schools in the US now require. Community service is actually not very hard to complete considering anything from volunteering at a local food bank to washing beakers in the chemistry room after school can help fulfill the requirement. However, many students put these hours off until their late junior or even senior year, forcing them at the last minute to give their time to the nearest and most convenient cause. But in addition to allowing them to graduate, volunteering is a crucial college resume builder and a great way to find their passion and make an impact on their local community.
The following tips will help your teenager make the most of their service requirement, in addition to leveraging the experience for the college admissions process:
Choose the Right Organizationby doing adequate research. Ask teachers, family, and friends about organizations that are making an impact in your community and think about if their cause aligns with your interests. On college applications, it is important to be able to express how the activities in which you participate further your personal mission or are valuable to you in some way. If you choose to work with a nonprofit, make sure the cause is a 501(3)(c); This means it has been government designated as a legitimate nonprofit. You can check the nonprofit status of an organization through sites such as Guidestar.
Reach Outto small nonprofits and even local branches of large organizations. They often do not have large teams and are eager to receive volunteers. Take initiative by cold calling, emailing, or even walking into an office and asking about volunteering. Tell them why you are inspired by their mission and tell them exactly how much time you have to commit.
Be Creative in choosing where you would like to do service. Especially in the spring as seniors gear up to graduate, popular service sites may be overwhelmed with volunteers. Admissions committees prefer to see that applicants took initiative to design a service experience that was uniquely theirs. Remember to think outside the box as you consider how you will dedicate your time. What skills/talents/passions set you apart from your peers and how can you mold those into a form of community involvement?
Focus on Skill Building by making clear to organizations the ways you could be an asset. For example, if research and writing are your strong suits, ask if they would like help editing or writing documents such a pamphlets or newsletters. If you’re savvy with social media or website building, many organizations may ask that you help manage their online presence. You can even let them know if you would like to gain a new hands-on skill through direct service. Not all organizations are designed with a diverse set of opportunities like this, but it will not hurt to ask! Not only will you have a more interesting and enjoyable service experience, but you will be able to add a valued skill to your college resume.
Be Consistent and Start Early. While it is admirable to volunteer at one day opportunities, such as a Breast Cancer Walk, colleges love to see when students commit to certain organizations beginning as early as freshman year and stick with it because they are truly dedicated to the mission. Consistency is crucial. Admission officials prefer to see long term commitment because it tells them that you have had the chance to learn and grow and, importantly, it demonstrates dedication and reliability on your part.
Just completing community service no longer gives applicants a leg up in the college admissions pool. However, with some forethought and a little legwork, your service work could critically strengthen your application and help you to truly stand out!
Here’s a simple thing I did with my 5 year old the other day for less than $3. I was having mom guilt over not spending ‘quality time’ with her (someone please tell me what ‘quality time’ means these days) so I picked her up from school an hour before getting her brother. I would usually run errands with her, which often results in her begging me to buy stuff. Then I say “no”, and she is bummed. Backfire.
So this time I tried a different twist. We went to get a cookie and I interviewed her. At 1st she was like “ugh, that word (interview) is scary - I don’t want to do that.” Maybe it was my paper, pen and ‘officialness’ about it. I relaxed and fired off questions, and was blown away by some of the answers. Here’s my short list:
If you could be any animal for the day, what would you be?
What’s your favorite veggie?
If you could have 1 person surprise you and come over to our house, who would it be?
What do you like about sharing a room with your little brother?
Why are you excited to go to kindergarten?
Where would you like to visit on a plane that you haven’t been before?
Do you think we’ll let you have a dog one day?
What makes your heart happy?
What makes your heart sad?
If we saw someone on the street asking for food or money, what would you do?
What would you say to a friend who is sick?
Who makes you laugh the most?
Yes, this is basically like those old American Express ads where they ask famous people questions and they give unfiltered responses. My point is …. sometimes I’m so busy thinking about myself, friends, work, the ‘to do’ list that I forget to just BE STILL and give greatly to my kids. I’m good at making breakfast, getting them out the door and shuttling them around. But it’s hard to just stop and be present. It doesn’t have to be about giving them stuff or a great adventure. This 15 minute interview uncovered random stuff I would’ve never guessed was running through her brain. So go try it out, see where your kid would go on plane, and please add to the list.
Did you know 160,000 kids in the United States stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying? As a parent of small kids, it’s another worry I get to add to my list of things that will keep me up at night when they hit the tween years. Thankfully there are many national and local nonprofits working to change this statistic by partnering with schools and parents to combat this increasing problem.
I recently discovered one nonprofit that is making large strides in the Silicon Valley. Launched in 1999 by community leaders who wanted to create a Silicon Valley where all youth can thrive, Project Cornerstone, is part of the YMCA of Silicon Valley. Project Cornerstone partners with parents, staff, and students in over 200 schools to help all children and teens feel valued, respected and known. Project Cornerstone empowers nearly 3,800 adults to positively impact over 60,000 youth yearly.
“We can tell which students come from a Project Cornerstone school. They are ready to cope with a bigger environment, able to deal with conflict effectively, and are prepared to learn with a common language of respect.”
— Jamal Splane, Assistant Principal, Rolling Hills Middle School
To empower students to combat bullying and peer abuse, Project Cornerstone developed the Expect Respect Program. Expect Respect helps students from different social groups—including bullies and victims, athletes and “mathletes,” tough kids and cheerleaders, class presidents and class clowns and everyone in between—work together to find common ground and create a “new normal” for their school where all students are accepted and supported by their peers.
Quick success story, 6th grader Brandon joined his school’s Project Cornerstone Expect Respect workshop. When another student shared his own story about bullying at their school and began to cry, Brandon stepped up, put his arm around the boy’s shoulder, and whispered support. After their initial surprise, all the rest of the group joined in. One student’s leadership and willingness to be an UPstander and show positive peer influence created great change for this student, and began a change for his entire school.
There are many other programs that are integral to Project Cornerstone. The Asset Building Champions (ABC) and Los Dichos parent engagement programs, in which adults learn to create positive connections with their own children and youth in the community. The Spanish-language Los Dichos program opens new doors for parents from diverse cultures to support their children’s school success as well as the healthy development of all young people in their communities.
Specifically the ABC and Los Dichos Programs Focus On:
Creating a common language and vocabulary about student respect and behavior expectations among all members of the school community — students, parents and caregivers, teachers and staff.
Helping students develop skills to handle physical, verbal, relational and digital bullying and to STAND UP if they see someone else being bullied.
Increasing the number of caring adults on campus so that all students feel that there is at least one adult they can turn to if they have a problem.
Contributing to a positive school climate where every student feels valued and supported to achieve and thrive.
The organization’s goal is to expand to all schools in Silicon Valley to impact over 200,000 youth annually—all learning to be UPstanders and creating a community of tolerance and acceptance where all are valued. If you’re interested in helping with expansion or in learning more about their programs, please visit www.projectcornerstone.org.
If you’ve spent more than a few hours in a hospital either visiting a friend or caring for a family member, you know it can be a mixed bag of heartbreak, terror, and optimism. Now imagine you have a young daughter who is suffering from a critically ill condition and you’ve traveled from outside the area for hospital care. And your medical expenses are outlandish and your 4-year old son is stuck hanging out in the hospital for a week. It’s the nightmare you want to wake up from….now.
To help make the nightmare more bearable, staff and volunteers from There With Care, a local nonprofit serving families facing medical crisis, step in. They sit down and ask what families need to make their hospital stay a little less painful. There With Care focuses on immediate needs of families who are referred by social workers or hospital staff. In just three years, the Bay Area Chapter of There With Care has served more than 350 families during a fragile time, providing care and support. They are currently helping families at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, and expanding soon to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and The Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland.
A common question I hear from busy parents of young kids is “What ideas do you have for hands-on volunteer projects aside from the usual holiday toy drive?” This is especially important for those living in the Silicon Valley where keeping our kids grounded in reality is a daily challenge. Getting involved with There With Care is a great option because it’s relatable to kids and teaches empathy first-hand. Every kid has been sick, they get it. As a parent you can walk through a real dialogue exchange with the kids by asking them questions such as “What is something we can say to someone who is sick? What can we do to help them smile?”
Here’s a few examples of activities you can do, either as a family, workplace, church, social group….you get the idea:
Grocery shop at There With Care’s warehouse, then deliver to a family at their home or hospital
Bring puzzles and games to the hospital and play with a sibling of an ill patient
Donate gas cards to help families travel more affordably
Create “Baby Essential” kits with new/used clothes, books, diapers and more
Join "Team Bake" to prepare homemade foods for families
Provide mentoring and tutoring for patients and siblings
Help at the warehouse, including sorting diapers, cleaning toys, and organizing pantry
Have a lemonade stand, with donations going to There With Care
If you’re up for more involvement, There With Care is also looking for volunteers to help launch hospital programs in San Francisco and Oakland. Here's a short video to give you a visual of the power of the program.
Interested in volunteering or learning more? Check out There With Care or email There With Care and contact Sara Alexander at sara.alexander@therewithcare.org.
We’re officially off and running into 2015, and for those of you who want to help “green” your child’s school or introduce your kids to fun and easy ways they can help the environment, Grades of Green is your answer.
Launched on Earth Day 2010 by four moms who wanted a better world for their children, Grades of Green is a California nonprofit that aims to make environmental protection second nature in young minds. Their website offers free instruction to inspire and empower students and the broader school community to take action to care for the environment. Anyone who wants to implement sustainability programs can register his or her school online - at no cost - to get tips on reducing trash, emissions and harmful classroom chemicals and can access dozens of other ideas to help the environment. Grades of Green is growing rapidly, with nearly 184,000 students from 277 schools around the world currently enrolled. The organization’s goal is to enroll thousands of schools with millions of kids—all caring for the environment and collectively making a huge impact.
Grades of Green also has an environmental leadership program called the Youth Corps, in which participating students become environmental stewards and leaders in their communities by committing to undertake a "Green Project" at their school over the course of the school year. These students, ranging from 2nd to 12th grade, have creative ideas for greening their schools and caring for the earth. For example, when some Youth Corps students discovered that Los Angeles County throws away enough trash to fill Dodger Stadium every day, they decided to bring “Trash Free Tuesdays” to their schools. This program encourages students to bring lunches that don’t generate trash, such as lunch boxes with reusable containers and reusable water bottles instead of disposable juice boxes. Making these types of easy changes can have a big impact—and can inspire classmates to make other environmental changes, too.
The Youth Corps students are hard at work, implementing a variety of activities at their school. Here’s a sample of a few:
Starting a garden at the school
Working to remove single-use water bottles and styrofoam lunch trays at the school cafeteria
Leading e-recycling and e-waste programs on campus
Collecting and donating used shoes
Organizing sports equipment swaps on lightly worn athletic shoes and equipment
Leading a beach cleanup
If your school could use help with the green activities they are already doing, or if you need ideas to get started, sign up to be a Grades of Green School. It’s all free. Just register hereto gain access to their online resources marked by the phrase “steps to implement activities.” The site includes over 40 Green Activities with step-by-step instructions, including photos, video clips, helpful products, and artwork to provide each school with immediate start-up capability. Get going!
Mondays at 9:00 am are usually not the highlight of my week. But this week it was, thanks to Ali and her 2nd/3rd grade classmates at Farnham Elementary. Ali is a cool kid with a big heart who wanted to do something to help other kids over the holidays.
We found a local nonprofit who works with foster kids and at-risk families and came up with the idea that her class would decorate stockings, fill them with a $5 gift card, a beanie baby, and a candy cane. The stockings would then be delivered to the nonprofit Help One Child for its annual Christmas party. (At the party, the kids get to sit on Santa’s lap and have their picture taken with him.)
Ali’s teacher was on board with the idea, flyers were sent home to the parents . . . and 100 percent of kids participated. Sure, this was a “feel good” activity but for 15 minutes this morning, Ali’s friends were able to learn about generosity through a hands-on project. (To kick it off, we did a quick talk about the importance of putting ourselves in other kids’ shoes and being more thoughtful.) My favorite part was that we weren’t planning on including notes from the students, but one girl asked if she could write a note—and then suddenly, everyone was eager to add a personal touch. I think we sometimes underestimate how thoughtful kids can be, so we lower our bar. These kids showed me the bar can be much higher.
I encourage us all, as we round the corner to 2015, to think about creative ways to make giving tangible for our kids. Perhaps it’s creating a new family giving tradition, or talking to your favorite nonprofit about a classroom giving project you can initiate. Or maybe it’s simply about buying less and experiencing more, together. Let’s raise the bar.
If you have ideas for giving projects you've done, we'd love to hear about them. Or if you need to quickly brainstorm a kids’ giving project...
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My friends have been asking for simple tips on how to encourage giving with their kids. As with most things in life, there’s no magic formula. There’s also no shortage of online advice for teaching generosity and kindness to kids. I’ve summarized some of my favorite sites below for your scanning pleasure.
