Project Ideas (06/02/20)


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 understand the culture of opportunity Hawken fosters for its students. (We believe that this would also be a great way to discuss civic engagement during potentially the fall since there will no longer be the service day available due to COVID-19). Another idea we are looking into presenting to the future board is a service day fair or a service/activity book. We want to have students understand what opportunities are available outside of Hawken to get involved in areas a student is passionate about completing. Many students do not know what service opportunities are available because many organizations do not take high school students. The service day fair or a service/activity book would combat this problem.  Next year, the Hawken Philanthropy Leadership Board is looking to work on a variety of projects that can aid and benefit alumni. Some of these project ideas are thank you notes/phone calls to Alumni, videos of students to Alumni, annual student luncheons with Alumni, a gratitude day, and class donation encouragements. Ella and I have numerous other project ideas, but we are being very careful with how many projects we present to the board and what those projects will entail. We want to make sure the board is successful with its work during the first year and that we do not “bite off more than we can chew”.

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