If/When I have Money

The other day I was thinking about life at a time if/when I have money. And when I think of a time that I might actually have extra funds at my disposal, I get pretty excited thinking about the possibilities. For many, those possibilities may lie in building their own home, taking a big trip, or buying a fancy new car, but (as I'm not a big fan of collecting 'stuff') I start getting excited about all the ways that I could give that money back to the things that got it for me in the first place.

As a student I was involved in the Student Foundation, a student group that runs the investments and fund raising for a foundation and then gives out merit based scholarships to fellow students. This group became a large part of my experience at UCSD and through the experiences I had volunteering and working with leading philanthropists in the area, I decided that giving back to those things that had impacted my life is going to be one of my biggest priorities as I move forward.

So what do I want to give to if/when I have money?
The first of all things would be to donate to SkillsUSA, an organization that I was highly involved with starting my sophomore year of high school and continue to volunteer with to this day. I'd want to start by donating to my local chapter at Central High School in Cheyenne, in large part because this incredible organization, led by my mentor, friend, and extra father Mr. Stevenson, was the impetus to my entire whirlwind of involvement from high school until now. Some students must fund raise their way to make it to the state and national conferences because many schools can no longer support these extra programs. Though the Central chapter has now had 3 national officers (not a very easy thing to do) and won Outstanding Chapter at the state level since he started the program, I know there are individuals that struggle to stay involved due to finances even though they'd love to take part. I would love to be able to donate funds that would help students that can't afford the fees to attend conferences on their own, and maybe to help fund events and programs that further support the organization.

Next, I think about my time in college and the hours I spent working and living at the Center for Student Involvement. Particularly, as a student employee for a new program we constantly were faced with a small operational budget that had to fight for funding every year.  The program is far too important to students and to their organizations to be lost due to budget cuts and I'd love to be able to give back to them, helping make the program continually viable and have the impact that it has the potential for. It would be great to be able to give them a little extra money to help contribute to student organizations along the way as well!


I'd also love to be able to give to some of the daily things in my life. Donate to Pandora's Music Genome Project or to Mint.com for it's exceptional services in helping me to manage my finances. To donate more to the local yoga studio here in Minneapolis, One Yoga, to help sponsor their community yoga and outreach classes. I'd want to continually give funding to the UCSD Student Foundation. To help MMW, the writing series at my college at UCSD to go back to 6 quarters instead of the decreased (due to budget cuts) 5. I'd also like to see more merit-based scholarships in general at UCSD because we all know the State of California will continually decrease public funding for education until the UC's are no longer state-funded universities.

I'll be honest, I have a few selfish things I'd like to do as well. I want to be able to travel to Lebanon and Ghana, the Dominican Republic and so many more places to visit my friends who are living, working, and volunteering abroad.  I want to be able to fly my younger siblings Ben, Katie, and Nicole to some of the amazing places that I've had the fortune to visit and help expose them to the wonderful world we live in. I'd like to pay off my own student loans and have the freedom to enjoy delicious food from expensive but organic local grocery stores.  And how great would it be to rent out a massive boat and cruise around the Mediterranean with my good friends from near and far for a week?  Exploring and sharing adventures with friends will be a continual priority for me

So if/when I have money, I want it to impact more than just me. I want it to be seen as funds for the communities that have helped me to become who I am and those same communities that will continue to help others succeed. And I'm proud that many of my friends have the same mentality and I hope this message may encourage them to think about volunteering or giving at least a little to a cause you may be passionate about.

For all my UCSD friends. There's a new campaign, similar to the one I was involved in with the Student Foundation, that is encouraging any and all alumni to give back anything that they can-budget cuts in California are forcing our past classmates to have even harder times graduating because there are fewer and fewer classes they can get in to. Some people donate funds to start a foundation with a few hundred thousand dollars. But like me for the past few months, many of us can't even imagine the capacity to be able to do that. I ask you then, think about contributing $5, $10, or maybe $25 dollars to the UCSD Alumni Association's new campaign. Here's the link, think about it (note, you can direct the funds to any part of UCSD that you want by writing in the "notes" section. ex: MMW, CSI, ERC)