Do Something Boot Camp
All day yesterday, I attended Do Something’s Boot Camp in San Francisco, and it was a blast!
Do Something likes to call the age 25 and under crowd “young people,” while all others are “old people.”
Among the attendees were about 100 young people who are actively engaged in improving their communities, both locally and/or globally. It was inspiring to be around so many young people with so much passion, energy for action, and commitment to doing good.
It was literally a room full of changemakers. I have no doubt that the dreamers and do-ers in that room will have a powerful, lasting impact on society.
Throughout the day, we moved around to different breakout sessions with various leadership and organizational building skills, including topics such as marketing and branding, starting a not-for-profit, measuring impact, and running effective meetings. Led by volunteers from companies like JetBlue and Intel, the sessions were great for learning practical techniques and tips that we could apply to our organizations and projects after leaving the boot camp.
The rapid fire speed pitching session at the end of the day was a great experience. Young people like me were paired with old people and off we went in short and intense spurts. It allowed me to experiment with how to best pitch my project, and I left with lots of advice and feedback to build off of.
It was an unexpectedly very fun and useful way to spend a precious summer Saturday. I met a whole bunch of amazing people doing amazing things, with great personalities to boot! (haha get it? “boot”!) Some special shout-outs to Mindy, Jason, Jimmy, Kelsey, Natalie, Paul, Lien, Keana, and Mike :)
Young people are not the future. Young people are the now. And the future is now.
wow. sounds like a really fun and productive day. cool how the oldsters were teaching the youngsters!
Yeah, I had a really good time and met a lot of great people.