The Youth and Philanthropy Initiative is a great opportunity for grade 10 students to reach out into the community and make an impact in so many ways. Over the course of the school year, students divide themselves into small teams and choose a small, local, grassroots organization. Each team must prepare a presentation that outlines the organization’s mission, programs, impact on the community, and they must try to prove why their organization is worthy of the $5,000 prize offered by the Toskan Foundation. Although it may not seem that significant, the prize money can make a huge difference for these organizations. Event though they are all worthy of receiving the financial assistance, only one can be chosen as the winner in May.

However, money is not the only factor that determines the impact that students can have on the organization that they choose. In fact, the simple act of volunteerism—only five required hours of service to each organization—makes such a difference because they can always use a helping hand. Year after year though, students make the personal choice to spend more than just the minimum required hours volunteering at their organization because they realize how much their efforts mean.

My personal YPI experience was so rewarding, not only because my group won the prize, but also because we developed such a great relationship with the Executive Director Adrian Bercovici and his wife Natalie from Generations Foundation. They appreciated our help so much, and supported us every step of the way through the preparation of our presentation, offering all of the information and resources that we needed to demonstrate their organization’s importance.

YPI is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that teaches students the importance of volunteerism, and will certainly remain an important aspect of the grade 10 curriculum for many years to come.—Cory Oringer ’11 (grade 11)