Speechless
I am fortunate to have a job where I am challenged, improved and inspired every day by the conversations that I have with Millennials all across the country. I do this job because I believe Millennials are the key to helping us fight some of our countries most pressing problems and I want to offer support as they transform campuses, communities and our nation.
It’s not out of the ordinary for these conversations to make me cry or to make me laugh, but it is out of the ordinary for a few short sentences to leave me speechless. Join me in committing to help Mobilize.org empower and invest in Millennials. Your gift of $50 or more will support this generation as they become the change-makers in our communities they can and should be.
At the end of the Millennial Leadership Summit in New York City, where Mobilize.org brought together participants and seed investment winners from the past 10 Mobilize.org summits, I was tapped on the shoulder by a timid young man named Sean. Sean had a smile on his face that stretched ear to ear. He didn’t look me in the eyes when he spoke to me, but I could see his eyes were beaming. This was Sean’s first Mobilize.org event – his advisor from Hostos Community College in the Bronx had brought him.
Sean tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I would step outside with him, as he had to go home and babysit his sisters (to which I replied, “Sweet.” and he replied “Nah, they’re terrors.”). He began to speak, nervously at first. What followed is the reason I do my job, and the reason that I know what we’re doing is important, and that we need to do more of it:
“People like me.” He stopped, and started again, “People from where I’m from, we don’t get opportunities like this. I guess someone saw something in me, and they gave me this opportunity. Thank you.”
I started with Mobilize.org 6 years ago because I knew that the work that we did provided opportunities to people whose voices are rarely heard. I knew that we brought together groups of people that reflected the rich diversity of this generation, but did not mirror that of the leadership structures that made the decisions for our lives. I did not, however, know how difficult it would be to be thanked, by a 20 year-old student, for being the first person to have given him an opportunity.
So, today, I am asking you to do more. Please make a gift of $50 or more today to Mobilize.org so that together, we can offer more opportunities to Millennials like Sean in 2012 and beyond.
At Mobilize.org, we’re hard at work, creating a generation of change-makers by empowering and investing in Millennials to create and implement solutions to social problems. Together,with your support, we can do more so that we hear “thank you for the opportunity” more and “thank you for being the first to believe in me” less.
Keep Mobilizin’,
Maya Enista Smith, CEO
Mobilize.org
P.S. It costs less than $1,000 for Mobilize.org to offer the transformative experience of participating in one of our summits to a Millennial. Your gift of $50 today will help us to offer this experience to more Millennials in 2012 and beyond. Thank you.
