7th Grader Giving Back to Global Cause – Magnified Giving’s Student Philanthropy Program
Back in early April, I received an email about participating in Magnified Giving’s Student Philanthropy Program. Magnified Giving is an organization that gives students $1000 (or more) and challenges them to find a local non-profit organization to receive this money.
Hajar Elayyadi, a 7th grade student at Conner Middle School, shared that after doing research she came upon the World Affairs Council. After reading carefully and looking thoroughly through the material, she decided she wanted to nominate the Council for a grant. Hajar asked me many in-depth questions including:
How many people does this nonprofit have on their board?
We have 14 board members. You can find a list of our board members by clicking here.
What are the backgrounds of the people on their board of directors?
The World Affairs Council’s board of directors vary in background from consumer marketing experts to lawyers, academics, realtors, to consultants for the United Nations. The board is from many different countries as well; even though they live here in Cincinnati. You can find more information about some of them through these blog entries: Richard Lauf, Robert Betz, and Oxana Prokhorova to name a few.
How do you think this impacts the organization?
Our Board of Directors are crucial in leading this organization, expanding the council’s mission, and allowing our work to be sustainable for the future of our region.
What challenges does this organization face?
One of our biggest challenges is the lack of awareness of our programs in the community. We are the best kept secret and don’t want to be! We are also challenged in reaching students with programs where they are given such a small stuff.
Why should we donate to your organization?
You should donate to the organization because students need a global perspective to thrive in this current environment and the schools currently don’t have the resources to allow students to have these necessary global skills for future success in college and career. These programs also help to break down stereotypes about individuals who may appear different and create empathy within the student body. We fill that gap with our education offerings.
What does this organization do well in their programs?
Our education programs are excellent for students of all ages from 3 to adult. For elementary to 8th grade level, we have an amazing program to learn about art and culture connecting firsthand with someone from India, Mexico, Japan, or China. It is these types of meaningful connections that make our programs a success and increase empathy within students. For high school level, we have our annual International Education Summit which supports learning about a specific foreign affairs topic such as Human Rights Around the World and then dive into global careers by meeting locals who work globally. More examples can be found here: https://globalcincinnati.org/programs/global-education/.
How many people do they serve?
We serve almost 7,000 students, 289 international visitors, almost 1,000 business, academic, and civic leaders as well as 431 volunteers. Please find our 2019 annual report attached to dive further into this.
I could tell that she was an extremely talented young lady who has a very bright future ahead of her. She also shared a little bit about why the World Affairs Council is close to her heart and here is a little bit of her story.
“First of all, I’d like to say thank you. Thank you for what your organization does, especially with cultural awareness and speeches with leaders. I myself am a Muslim girl who wears the hijab. It was my choice to wear the hijab, I chose to wear it in 2nd grade, but at the same time my ethnicity goes way past that! I am a born American but am 50% Chinese (Taiwan), 38% African (Moroccan), and 12% Berber, with traces of pacific islander, and French, and European in me. Compact that into an average sized 12 almost 13-year-old who loves giving speeches with meaning, and giving motivation, and hardheaded determination and you got me. So, as you can see your organization means a lot to me in so many different ways, my goal is to make my fellow students feel the same way.”
Here is a short video I worked on for her presentation to explain the importance of the World Affairs Council and why what we do is special and unique.
Congratulations to Hajar on her winning pitch which allowed the World Affairs Council to receive a $300 grant award. She went over and beyond by choosing to also compete in a 2nd giving program to represent and argue that the World Affairs Council should receive additional funds. She represented the organization and received 2nd place in the competition which allowed the Council to receive an additional $1,000.
Her passion and dedication to increasing cultural awareness as a 7th grader is an inspiration to me daily. Hajar is truly going places and ready to work with us to put the grant money to have great impact in the community. Thank you to Hajar and Conner Middle School for choosing the World Affairs Council.
