Hawken Philanthropy Board

              Creating the Hawken Philanthropy Leadership Board has been a memorable and fantastic project to work on. I am extremely excited to present my final presentation to a variety of members within the Hawken community. Ella and I have worked dozens of hours on our Hawken Project and establishing the Hawken Philanthropy Leadership Board, so we are looking forward to presenting our findings to our community. I am extremely proud of everything Ella and I were able to complete especially during an unprecedented time like this. For tomorrow’s final presentation, Ella and I spent many hours identifying the optimal presentation format for information, creating the presentation, and practicing our presenting skills. We begin the presentation by giving a general overview of a variety of different topics and ideas. We think it is important that we lay the proper foundation to present the problem we found, and the solution...

After meeting with dozens of professionals from a variety of high schools, colleges, and philanthropy oriented fields, Ella and I obtained numerous project ideas and initiatives to present to the Hawken Philanthropy Leadership Board next year. Ella and I thought that it was essential that we identified the top projects that would be both successful and feasible for the board to complete. After hours of feedback and deliberation, we selected seven potential projects that the board will focus on. These projects we identified would ensure that the board is accomplishing its two-fold mission (1. Educating the Hawken Student body, 2. Providing internal/external initiatives to allow students to participate in). Ella and I agreed that the most important project that the board should potentially focus on for next year was establishing and creating the Hawken Philanthropy Week. We believe that students need to understand more about Hawken and the greater Cleveland community in order to truly ...

Throughout our Hawken Project, Ella and I have met with a variety of different professionals working in an academic capacity. We have met with numerous high school staff and college faculty throughout the United States to gain their perspective and learn about what they are doing to help their school. After meeting with a variety of different high schools and colleges, we felt that it was important and necessary that we have conversations with established non-profit foundations. Mr. Biggar was gracious enough to connect us with some of his colleagues from two extremely successful Northeast Ohio Foundations. One of the people Ella and I had the opportunity to meet with was Pam Eichenauer from the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation. The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation is a private family owned non-profit with a large endowment of over $175 million. The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation reviews grant proposals from other non-profit organizations and financially supports awarded n...

On Monday, Ella and I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Ms. Noreen Cameron and Ms. Megan Dietzler from Villanova University. This was one of my favorite conversations with college faculty and staff. At the beginning of our meeting, Ella and I explained our project in depth to both faculty members, and then did a couple of fun icebreaker activities. Once we finished these activities, we had a conversation with both Ms. Cameron and Ms. Dietzler about philanthropy and the importance of giving back. We learned about a variety of different initiatives Villanova offers its current students. Some of these initiatives included school wide service days and service-oriented classes. Villanova wants its student body to have a transformative service experience, and Ms. Cameron emphasized the importance of creating relationships with service partners. In order to do so, prolonged consistency and longevity of service are vital towards fulfilling both of these goals. Ms. Dietzler discussed...