|
Class of 2009
Peabody College
Major: Human and Organizational Development
Minor: Corporate Strategy
While in high school, John was an Executive Board Member of The Georgetown
Project, a non-profit that seeks to mobilize the community of Georgetown,
Texas, in an effort to create a healthy environment for young people.
John believed that youth can make responsible decisions when provided with
positive, asset building alternative forms of recreation and
entertainment. John utilized his connections with the Georgetown Project
and a youth leadership group called The Youth Action Council to achieve
his vision for creating such an environment for young people in his
community. With a group of his high-school aged peers, John spent two
years developing plans for the building of Georgetown’s first
multi-purpose Teen Center.
The breadth and diversity of service opportunities at Vanderbilt gave John
a chance to volunteer with numerous organizations as soon as he entered
his first year at school. John continued his passion for youth
development serving as a mentor and tutor with organizations such as
Vanderbuddies, The Loop, and Hit the Books Boxing program. However,
John’s interest in international service was realized during the summer
after his first year at Vanderbilt. He traveled to Comayagua, Honduras,
to volunteer for eight weeks as a Service Coordinator for an organization
called Mission Honduras. The faces of the Honduran poor motivated John to
get involved with a service group at Vanderbilt called Manna Project
International during his sophomore year. Through Manna, John served as
the Hunger Lunch Chair and organized college-age volunteers to coordinate
a monthly fundraising rice-and-beans lunch dedicated to fighting child
starvation in rural Nicaragua. During his sophomore year, John also
served as his fraternity philanthropy chair, planning service activities
for seventy fraternity members.
Eager to continue working and serving the international community, John
spent the first semester of his junior year living in London and working
for a public policy think-tank. The think-tank, called the Centre for
Social Justice, worked to create long-term solutions to replace existing
systems that had failed to reduce hunger, poverty and illiteracy in the
UK. John collaborated with the Senior Researcher to publish three
public-policy documents and organize three road-show campaign events
illuminating the extent and effect of poverty in Manchester, Birmingham
and Glasgow. Now in his senior year, John is excited to put the lessons
he learned about the powerful influence of effective social policy into
practice. John, in the position of Policy Director, will play a key role
in bringing a student-led public policy think-tank called the Roosevelt
Institution to Vanderbilt’s campus. He hopes that Roosevelt will serve as
a bridge between innovative, creative student ideas and the policy-making
process on the local, state, and federal levels of government – all with
the aim of creating policies that improve the condition of poor citizens
living on the margins of society. |
