What is SEE College Prep?

We are the largest non-profit organization focused on SAT prep in California, and the second largest in the country. Our programs have served more than 500 educationally disadvantaged high school students, and will expand this upcoming summer to serve 650 students at 20 program sites across California. During the academic year, our team of 15 prepares for the upcoming summer. We had about 20 paid staff and more than 50 volunteers involved with our programs last summer.  We expect that number to double this coming year.

What did GES offer you?

When I came to GES, SEE College Prep was an idea. I think I told myself at the time that I knew what I was doing, but I really didn’t. The mentorship and camaraderie I experienced at the summit was phenomenal, and really opened my eyes to how big the world really is. It was so valuable to be immersed in an environment where our projects were the primary focus.

How did GES prepare you to continue with SEE College Prep?

The main thing that GES offered was a group of people who were equally passionate about changing the world. Whether they were speakers, staff members, or delegates, everyone was extraordinarily committed to doing what they could to help. Everyone was so supportive, and seeing other projects that were further along than mine was truly inspiring. After the conference, we also participated in the Global Giving Fundraising Challenge for GES participants. We raised just under $5,000 and earned a permanent spot on Global Giving. I didn’t realize it at the time, but we wouldn’t have had enough money to even make it through our first summer if it were not for the access we had to Global Giving.

What have some of your greatest challenges?

We have had to grow up very quickly.  It is also difficult to maintain quality at scale, and it’s been a challenge to systematize the various processes that enable our programs to be successful. Every few months I encounter a huge learning curve. The most recent was learning the ropes of professional fundraising; the current task is to build a Board that offers us the many different kinds of support that we need.

What about your greatest successes?

The majority of our students tell us that their SAT teacher is one of the best teachers they ever had and that their SAT tutor was the best mentor they ever had. In the spring, we placed second in the BASES Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, Stanford’s premier social venture business plan competition. Recently, we’ve attracted coverage in BusinessWeek and the New York Times. I’m also very proud of our revenue model which allows us to cover the majority of our expenses with revenue we generate ourselves.

What are your plans for next year?

I will graduate from Stanford in June and have accepted an offer with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles.  However before I join them in January 2011, I will pursue a merger with Let’s Get Ready, a non-profit of its kind that offers SAT preparation and college preparation programs to nearly 2,500 low-income high school studente each year. Such a move has tremendous value because it offers a way to sustain our efforts and share innovations that will beneift thousands of students each year in New England; it would also offer Let’s Get Ready a much smoother entrance into California and an opportunity to bring their work onto the national state. Once the merger is complete and I transition to McKinsey, I will serve on Let’s Get Ready’s National Board of Directors, where I will chair their California Advisory Board.

What advice to you have to anyone else with their own project?

No matter what, never give up. A lot of luck has come our way and enabled the small things we have been able to accomplish.  And never forget that as exciting as these projects might be at times, we are looking to solve real problems that affect real people. Every bit of effort really does matter.

Check out the advice they gave to counselors and other attendees at the College Board Forum.

Jet setting around the globe in the name of sustainability, Juan Soriano, a 2009 GES delegate, attended the 2-week UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18.  As part of SustainUS, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of young people advancing sustainable development and youth empowerment in the United States, Juan represented youth across the US.  Through SustainUS, Juan also rallied behind a cause he strongly supports as a native of Peru, which was to send a delegation of youth from Latin America who are often underrepresented at conferences such as these.  During the conference, Juan delivered a speech drafted by the International Youth Climate Movement (IYCM) to the heads of state inside the Bella Center on behalf of youth around the world.

In February of 2006, with the support of staff and the Northwestern community, GES successfully hosted its first conference. The next challenge for Jon and Nathaniel was building upon this success. “Doing something once is the easy part. The real question is how do you sustain it?” Marino said.  Together Jon and Nathaniel founded the Center for Global Engagement that has now evolved into the Global Engagement Summer Institute.

Jon says that his “belief in the power of students to be positive agents of change,” inspired him to lead GES. “Through GES we invested in students’ abilities to be involved as leaders, not just passive onlookers.”

After leaving Northwestern in 2008, Jon extended his efforts to unite people and make change in the world as a Fulbright Scholar in Uganda. He worked with the Refugee Law Project, which, according to its mission, “seeks a country that treats all people within its borders with the same standards of respect and social justice.”   Most recently, Jon moved to Galway, Ireland to accompany his wife Lauren, a GES founding member herself, who was recently named one of the twelve U.S. Mitchell Scholars for 2009-10. He’s enjoying the Irish culture and has decided to pursue a Masters in philosophy from the National University of Ireland in Galway while Lauren completes her Mitchell. He’s excited about the challenge of connecting moral and political philosophy to the notions of globalization, justice, and community that he has spent so much time thinking about over the years.

In the years since he helped found GES, Jon has been inspired by the vast improvements new staffs have implemented. “I feel like a fan of GES, and I love to watch its momentum and energy build over time,” Marino said. “As GES improves and fulfills its mission to build a community of committed change-agents, it gives me-and lots of other recent graduates-a sense of hope.”

Who says texting can’t change the world? Or at least make a difference.

When Josh Nesbit was confronted with a fundamental health care problem in Malawi, he turned to modern technology for a creative solution. With a simple text message, Nesbit was able to transform the entire organization of the hospital where he volunteered last year.

Nesbit first traveled to Malawi in the summer of 2007 to volunteer at a rural hospital called St. Gabriel’s, which serves a quarter million people dispersed 100 miles in every direction. While there, Nesbit volunteered with the mobile HIV testing unit, helping with immunizations and counting pills in the pharmacy. The hospital only has two physicians, so it relies on a network of more than 400 volunteer health workers to be home-based care providers in their communities. But this means that these volunteers are disconnected from their patients and the hospital.

Nesbit thought of a solution to this problem when he was first introduced to Ken Banks, the founder of a free mobile communications organization for nonprofits called FrontlineSMS. “The hospital wanted and needed to be connected to the communities,” Nesbit says. And FrontlineSMS could make that a reality. Although never before applied to the health sector, Frontline SMS’s free software allows users to send and receive text messages with large groups of people through mobile phones. To Nesbit, the software seemed like a natural fit. “People were ready, and it made a lot of sense,” he says.

A grant from Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service enabled Nesbit to return to Malawi in the summer of 2008. With a donated laptop, 100 recycled cell phones, and a copy of the FrontlineSMS software, Nesbit set up a text message-based communications network for St. Gabriel’s Hospital and its community health volunteers. In eight weeks, Nesbit trained 75 community health volunteers to text message.

The project, Mobiles in Malawi, expands the hospital’s capabilities. The volunteers now use text messages to respond to requests for emergency medical care, track patients, record HIV and TB drug adherence, stay updated on patient status, mobilize remote communities for outreach testing, provide instant drug dosage/usage information, and connect HIV/AIDS support group members.

After leaving Malawi, Nesbit jumped right into replicating the Mobiles in Malawi pilot for worldwide expansion. An international health and bioethics major, Nesbit has juggled being a full-time student, a soccer player at Stanford, and an advocate for his mobile project. He spends about six hours each day spreading awareness of his project to heads of NGOs, CEOs of corporations, government officials, in-country project managers, university faculty, and friends.

The program was relaunched in February 2009 as FrontlineSMS:Medic, which is made up of a team of people committed to using technology to support community health workers in the developing world. One reason FrontlineSMS works so well is because it doesn’t require new phones, new computers, or even a better Internet connection. Instead, it uses the resources already available in-country.

For his spring break this year, Nesbit spent 10 days in Uganda setting up FrontlineSMS:Medic programs at two clinics, which collectively serve 800,000 people in 29 communities and 2,304 villages. “The trip to Uganda reinforced my belief that a successful health program stems from local ownership and the utilization of simple tools,” he says. “The energy and excitement in the room on the third day, when we brought in 80 community health workers for SMS orientation, reminded me why this work is valuable.”

Nesbit is now dedicated to the project full-time . He is currently working with his team on continuing software development, and they already have firm implementation plans with more than 15 partner clinics in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They hope to implement the program in 35 countries within the next six months. The group has multiple grant applications and recently received its first major organizational funding, which adds up to more than $40,000. It’s a long way from the typical 10-cent text message.

This article appears in Abroad View’s fall 2009 magazine written by Molly Lister.

From an early age, Meixi Ng has been aware of injustice that exists in the world. Meixi, a Singapore native, has worked for Blessing Home since her early teen years, a hostel located in Changrai, Singapore that boards high school students from rural villages. Meixi often developed friendships with some of the students, and in the case with her friend Da, the friendship ended prematurely. Da, a 16 year old, was sold by her parents. “I remember how much Da loved education,” Ng said. “I didn’t know why I deserved to keep pursuing an education while she could not.” Since this tragic and revealing moment, Meixi has felt compelled to raise awareness and take action against human trafficking and injustices similarly attacking human dignity.

Meixi and her classmate and friend Suraj Prakash, also from Singapore, co-founded The Amber Initiative, a non-profit organization that strives to preserve and restore human dignity and compassion through creativity and education. In the early stages of its growth, Meixi attended the 2008 GES conference as an American delegate (Apply Today). “The delegates challenged each other’s ideas with mutual respect, and everyone was passionate about making change,” Ng said. The exchange of ideas and networking led Meixi to partner with Gitika Mohta, her fellow delegate, to connect their GES project to The Amber Initiative.

In July 2008, Meixi and Gitika traveled to Calcutta, India to do an art workshop with some children living in a community center run by Sanlaap India, located in the heart of the red-light district area in Calcutta. They organized an art project titled “I want to be…” where the children dreamt about their future profession, and drew pictures of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They all had big dreams and these ranged from a flower to a professional cricket player. “The artwork gives the children hope, which gives me joy,” Ng said.

In the future, Meixi hopes to expand The Amber Initiative by building new ties with organizations from around the world that share a common goal of preserving and restoring human dignity. Their next project will involve working with a youth group in Thailand and Cambodia to organize theatrical performances about safe migration. The non-profit organization SCARDP will team with The Amber Initiative to sponsor this event. Ultimately, Meixi hopes that The Amber Initiative will partner with organizations led by former GES delegates to fulfill its mission.

“The one sad thing about GES is that you probably will never see everyone all together again,” Ng said. In order to reconnect with some of her fellow delegates, Meixi hopes to collaborate with the Southeast Asian delegates to create the Southeast Asia Leadership Institute. The Institute would provide Southeast Asian students who demonstrate leadership with a similar experience to GES.

Aside from her service and organizational work, Meixi is a junior completing her double major in International Studies and Social Policy and a minor in Communication Sciences and Disorders. With a sound education, promising non-profit organization, GES experience, and inspiration, Meixi is well on her way to making change in the world.

Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba and co-author of his new biography Bryan Mealer spoke at the first-ever GES speaker event on October 2 2009.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind published in 2009, focuses on William’s impoverished childhood and efforts to build a wind turbine out of refuse in his small Malawian village.  Forced to quit school at 14, William taught himself the basics of electricity and mechanics from school books that were often in English, a language he himself did not speak.  Using the diagrams to understand complex technological concepts, he would search through landfills and trash dumps to find mechanical parts that he could not afford to buy.

William knocked together a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire. The wind turbine was eventually successful and brought electricity to a village with only a few other outlets.

Bryan, a former Associated Press staff writer based in Congo and co-author of the book, says William helped remind him why he fell in love with Africa in the first place.

A TED speaker and student at a school for rising African leaders in South Africa, William is currently on a speaking tour around the U.S. but says even if offered a high paying job he feels an obligation to return to his homeland.

“William’s achievements,” Al Gore says, “should serve as a model of what one person, with an inspired idea, can do to tackle the crisis we face.”

While we work to put together a conference that strives to build the capacity of people just like William, we should remember how powerful one person can be and that determination and dedication are more important that opportunity.

Sanitary pads are leaving the realm of Kotex commercials, hushed women’s conversations and the deep recesses of purse pockets. For women in Uganda, they have become the difference between hope and desperation.

Tune in for today’s “The Oprah Winfrey Show” as Oprah delivers a call to action for all women.  Inspired by the New York Times best-selling book “Half the Sky” by Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl Wudunn, this eye-opening hour reveals powerful stories of women overcoming adversity to realize a better life for themselves.  Oprah herself calls one of the stories “the most incredible story of manifesting a dream I have ever heard.”

In conjunction with the show, Oprah will launch a new registry online at www.oprah.com/forallwomen, where the Kasiisi Project will be featured.  Tune-in to the “Oprah” show this Thursday to hear Oprah’s call to action and to see how we can actually change the course of history in our lifetime.  (Check local listings)

So what does this mean for MakaPads? The completely biodegradable sanitary pads, made from papyrus and white paper waste donated from local businesses are more than just a panty-liner. They provide jobs for women in slums of Kampala and at a refugee settlement that in turn, allows them to spend money on their children’s education and keep their daughters in school even when it is that time of the month.

“Oprah’s support of the project on GlobalGiving provides a promising push for Kasiisi Project to soar,” Alice says, “and as told at GES… this latest connection could provide for me the impetus to successfully ‘do good well.’”