Photo by Katherine Frey, The Washington Post
Shortly after 36-year-old businessman Reed Sandridge was laid off from his job at a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., he remembered some of his late mother’s words of wisdom: W”hen you’re going through tough times, that’s when you most need to give back.”
So starting last December, on the third anniversary of her death, Sandridge started the Year of Giving project, giving away $10 a day to a different person for a year. He explores his community each day and finds an individual to be the recipient of his daily gift. Today was Day 127 of his project, so Sandridge has given away $1270 and met 127 people he never would have met otherwise. In addition, he uses his blog to tell the story of each person he meets.
While he acknowledges the $10 is a small contribution that won’t change someone’s life, Sandridge believes that the act of giving, getting to know people, and sharing these stories will hopefully inspire others toward generosity.
When asked about the most memorable recipients of $10, Sandridge finds it hard to just name a handful. Every single person has a unique and special story. For example, Day 103’s Matt from southern Virginia, took Sandridge’s $10, added $90 of his own and used the $100 to sponsor 10 kayakers taking part in a fund-raiser to save the James River.
In an attempt to make a larger impact, Sandridge is calling June 15 a Worldwide Day of Giving, where he’s asking everyone who has heard his story or been to his blog to do what he’s doing, for just one day: to give $10 to a stranger and then write about their experience on his site.
Though it would’ve been quicker and more life-changing to simply write a $3650 check to one person, he thinks this project is a “much more personal experience, getting to know someone, getting to know what they’re doing with (the $10).”
“It’s more valuable to sit and listen to someone,” Sandridge says. “And the fact that I’m out of work right now has inspired so many people.”
The “higher” in higher education shouldn’t be correlated to higher costs.
Take a look at the University of the People, a non-profit that is the world’s first tuition-free online university where students can go to learn for free. The only fees are for application and examination processing, both of which are nominal.
It was founded by educational entrepreneur Shai Reshef in 2009 based on the idea to offer access to high education regardless of location, finances, gender, culture or race. So far the university has accepted 450 students from 87 countries, including the United States, China, Indonesia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. More programs will be added as the numbers of students grow.
In order to be sustainable, the university needs 15,000 students worldwide, and also needs donations. $80 will send one student to University of the People for one term. It needs $6 million for sustainability.
The high-quality low-cost global educational model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and technology to bring university-level studies within reach of millions of people across the world.
I think it’s a novel idea and one that harnesses the power of technological advances for the betterment of mankind. It spreads the tremendous value of higher education all across the world.
Today was Cal Day! It was UC Berkeley’s open house and a huge day of basically showing off everything that makes it such an amazing university.
To help fundraise for Camp Kesem, I donned a bra and participated in “Stuff the Cups.” To sum up how it worked, male Camp Kesem counselors went around and asked people to donate money (stuff) into their bras (the cups). I was definitely a little nervous at the beginning, but loosened up and had fun with it once it got strangers to start smiling, laughing, and donating.
Though not that many people donated, the bras on males certainly turned a lot of heads. As a result, a lot of visitors and prospective freshman listened as we talked about our organization and what we do. It was also great to hear many people complimenting us on our cause and our creativeness, as it’s sometimes hard to stand out among the hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of students at Berkeley.
It was an interesting perspective to look different and be kind of out there. If you knew me back in high school, this is something I definitely wouldn’t have done before college. But life at Cal has taught me to open up, and I think that’s helped me to become a better person.
Though we ended up raising a small chunk of money from the day, I think the best part was just getting the chance to make lots of people smile and laugh, and add a little extra Berkeley flavor to Cal Day :)
Last night, I attended an amazing concert by Jónsi. He made a stop in Berkeley at Zellerbach Hall as part of his world tour.
Jónsi’s an Icelandic singer who I’d never heard about until my friend James told me about him. I listened to some of his songs online and decided to give him a shot. Boy, am I glad I did. The concert was absolutely amazing. Whoever designed and produced the show must of been a artistic genius. Strobe lights, lots of color, projected images, and the set were beautifully blended with the music.
This photo doesn't do the show justice, but it's the only one I took during the performance.
Jónsi’s voice had an almost angelical quality and was great live. All the instruments, some I’ve never seen before, added powerful beats and texture to every song. Though it was hard to understand the lyrics because of his accent, the anthemic feel to most of the songs was awesome.
There was a powerful environment/nature/animals theme to the entire set too. The moving images and colors went a long way toward bringing this setting to life. Even Zellerbach’s ceiling had moving projected images, including butterflies, stars, and streaking lights. You really have to experience it in person.
This was the third big concert I’ve been to (Jason Mraz and Marié Digby being the others), and I was just blown away by the visual effects and music. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Found this video of the making of the show:
Over the past week, I’ve had three interviews for potential summer internships. The first two really stood out with stark differences between them.
The first interview was at a county health plan. To call it an interview would probably be an inaccurate description though. There were a few general interview questions, but most of the time, it was very free flow. It felt like a casual conversation and both I and my two interviewers exchanged a lot of stories about our lives and wove them around the job opening. There were plenty of laughs and I felt really comfortable.
The second interview was at a branch of a huge health care company. Again, I was interviewed by two people, but this time there was a distinct corporate feel to everything, from the small windowless conference room to the structure of the interview. It was static and not very two-sided. Question. Answer. Question. Answer. I was asked a lot of specific and standard interview questions. I stumbled on some of them and my answers weren’t that great, but I left thinking that this company and internship might not be the right fit for me.
The biggest thing that stood out to me was at the end of the interview, when I asked the interviewers what motivates and drives them to come to work everyday. The first words that came out of each interviewer’s mouths were something about how they love the company and the excitement and potential for growth in it. I know that it’s a good thing to like working for your company, but if that’s the first line of motivation, that doesn’t really fit my mindset of wanting to go into the health care industry to help others first and foremost.
In contract, in my interview with the county health plan, the interviewers answered this questions with stories and dreams centered around helping people. When this whole process sorts itself out in a few weeks, I’m sure I’ll be glad to have any internship at all. But based on the interviews, I already know which culture I’d fit in the best.