Teaching Was My Turning Point Into Service

The theme for this year’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service is “Turning Point.” At Points of Light we are highlighting turning point stories – stories about the moment or moments that inspired your service. Today’s Turning Point story comes from Mark Moravits, director of strategic partnerships at generationOn – the youth service enterprise of Points of Light. Mark is a proud Texan transplanted to New York City who travels extensively supporting generationOn’s work around the nation–so maybe you’ll cross paths one day. He also makes a mean guacamole.

The people I admire most in my life are teachers. But not just any teachers–really effective, really “do everything it takes” type teachers who are turning the tables through innovation combined with old-fashioned dedication. These teachers know that all children deserve a top-quality education regardless of their circumstances at home or where they were born.

I think education is the common denominator among social challenges in our nation. It’s the one social issue that has the potential to push other social issues to decline – poverty, crime, hunger and the list goes on. I’ll never forget managing a corporate volunteer project at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, R.I.. On the wall of this 80-year-old school was a quote by recording artist Lauryn Hill,

“In my travels all over the world, I have come to realize that what distinguishes one child from another is not ability, but access. Access to education, access to opportunity, access to love.”

In college, I worked hard academically and was en route to a consulting job. However, my heart was in my extracurricular activities. For two consecutive terms, I led the University of Oklahoma’s Big Event – one of the largest student-run service programs in the nation bringing more than 5,000 students together to volunteer on one day. I put significantly more time and energy into this than I did into my course work.

I had the “social good” bug and I had it bad. Sitting in an office all day? PowerPoints? Audits? No way. Enter Teach For America. In the back (and front) of my mind I had doubts that I’d be accepted into the program. The letter arrived. The envelope was regular size. It was clearly one page. A rejection letter – it had to be. It wasn’t. For the next two years of my life, I’d be teaching English as a Second Language to third graders in Houston, Texas.

I was in Houston, now responsible for the education of 22 students in a school greatly impacted by poverty, immigration issues and crime. Did my students have access to everything they needed to grow up healthy and strong and educated?  No. Did they have the same opportunity as their middle class peers? Absolutely not. Did they deserve equal access and opportunity? They did – they do – and I say this with every shred of assurance I can muster.

Perhaps you’re asking yourself, “If you think education is so important, then why did you leave the classroom?” Education extends far beyond the classroom – to the home, to the community and beyond. More than ever, we need to engage children in becoming global citizens. I’m so proud of the work we’re doing at generationOn and Points of Light to inspire, equip and mobilize youth (and the caring adults in their lives) to take action that changes the world through service and volunteerism. We’re helping communities come together – schools, nonprofits, families and companies – to give kids the access they need and the opportunities they deserve. The work is exhilarating and the results make me thankful to have the job I do. I could’ve been somewhere very different right now.

Forty-four third graders were my turning point. Have you reached your turning point yet?

My Turning Point: 76 Days of Life That Changed Mine Forever

The theme for this years National Conference on Volunteering and Service is “Turning Point.” On the blog we are continuing to highlight turning point stories – the stories of when someone recognized they could no longer stand by and watch the needs of their communities go unmet. The moment when they stepped in and took action. Today’s Turning Point comes from guest writer, Tymm Hoffman, Senior Designer at Points of Light. Want to share your turning point story and have it published on our blog? Email stories to: Listen [at] pointsoflight.org

Burying a child is never easy.

Burying a child amidst some of the worst poverty you could ever imagine was not only hard – it was life changing. It redefined our purpose and sent our family down a very different path while changing what the word “community” meant to me.

In 2008, Brighton, our son that we were adopting, passed away in an orphanage in Ethiopia. That year was a benchmark year for me personally and for my family as a whole. As we stood in an overcrowded cemetery looking at his headstone we realized just how incredibly blessed we were. We realized just how incredibly much we have.

And we realized how incredibly much we have to give.

Upon returning from Ethiopia that year – we knew our hearts and minds had been reset. I immediately got busy with leaving my job and was intentional about finding employment with an organization that was doing good through the service of others. I landed at Points of Light.

But we didn’t stop there. My wife and I started serving in our local community through our church as volunteers as well as mentors to college students. At this point we had a daughter home and we were determined to raise her in a setting where serving others was as natural as playing with others was.

2 years after his death we founded a nonprofit organization called Brighton Their World that focuses on the dire needs (mainly nutritional) of children in orphanages in 3rd world countries. Our main focus is on Ethiopia where we have created a partnership with an orphanage in the capital city there that we have shipped over 44,000 bottles worth of formula to so far. We recently received our 501.c.3 approval from the government and are excited to not only be providing for the children in need at our partner orphanage but also creating a way for people to serve alongside us.

I also lead several teams a year to Africa to work in orphanages and to visit the children – and though it is always difficult leaving family – I am positive that my absence and what I am doing will have an immeasurable impact on my girls (we have 2 daughters now) as they grow.

Of course I wish Brighton was with us today to play and run and laugh and serve with his sisters. But his spirit is with us every day. He is there every single time we stop to talk to a homeless person or help feed the hungry or mentor a student or step foot in an orphanage in Africa. Especially in Africa.

Serving others. It’s what we were built to do. It doesn’t always take the death of a child at 76 days old to help you see clearly. But sometimes it does.

This spring we hope you’ll join us at Points of Light in talking about your turning point – the moment or moments that inspired your service. For Tymm, it was a distinct moment in time. A moment that redefined his life and pointed it down a road of service. We know you have a story too. To share it with us and/or on this blog, send your story to: Listen [at] pointsoflight.org

A Labor of Love? Confessions of a First-Year Conference Staff Member

My name is Lizzy Seymour and I am a first-year staffer on the core planning team for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. I started in April of this year – just two short months before the big 2011 event – when planning was complete and we were in full execution mode. Some of you who attended last year’s Conference in New Orleans may recognize me as I was stationed at the registration desks from open to close. My job was to ensure that all of our attendees had a smooth and enjoyable onsite registration experience and welcome you to the world’s greatest Conference on volunteering and service!

We jumped immediately into planning for 2012 after a successful 2011 Conference. Our goal for the fall season was to execute a request for proposals for a new registration system. We were searching for a solution that could support our many registration pathways for volunteers, Points of Light members, National Service members and programs, scholarship applicants, vendors, media, etc., etc.! In years past, we had cobbled our main registration system together with other low-cost options to just … make it work. But I was determined to find a solution that would work for us and be an easy experience for our attendees.

We found a new registration system and set out to build all of the pathways I just mentioned – no small task. And did I mention that my supervisor was on maternity leave October through mid January?! And, oh, don’t forget about Thanksgiving, the week our office was closed over Christmas, and that little day of service called Martin Luther King Jr., Day. But, I am happy to report that with a little love, a ton of hard work and a lot of determination, we successfully launched our new registration system!

If you’ve registered with our Conference before, you will immediately notice that the new system is simpler to navigate, it’s pretty and we have lots of great customer service staff standing by if you do need assistance. Registration for general conference attendance is now open and, in March, we will launch our itinerary builder application allowing registrants to add individual workshops, plenaries, super sessions, service projects, sessions with a fee, etc.

One thing I love about working for Points of Light is the opportunity to work on just about any kind of project. Whether your background is event planning, operations or graphic design, our leaders have the confidence to give us roles (way) outside of our skill sets and nurture in us creativity, perseverance and leadership. After birthing the registration system “baby,” I now know I can take on anything!

My Turning Point. What’s Yours?

Today’s post comes from Delores Morton, Vice President of HandsOn University who provides strategic direction and vision for the National Conference on Volunteering and Service.

Our Conference happens once a year. But you may not realize that we work year round on the strategy, programming, speaker procurement, venues, logistics and everything else, and our planning team members have other projects and events that run concurrent with Conference work. Sometimes it’s hard not to look at the planning documents from the previous year and simply change “2011” to “2012,” or “New Orleans” to “Chicago.” As tempting as it might be to do so, it’s not good enough for our attendees or our Conference.

As the leader in service sector innovation, we strive to accelerate progress by convening and connecting the brightest and most cutting-edge civic entrepreneurs for change. Our Conference always has been and always will be a don’t-miss experience for social entrepreneurs to exchange ideas about what’s working, and to generate new ideas to create a brighter path for the future.

With the launch of Conference registration, we’ve revealed our new theme, “Turning Point,” which we think perfectly embodies our approach in 2012. It’s a decisive year for the service sector and the world; an election year when economic instability is putting even more pressure on government, business and nonprofits; and a year that will determine the future of national service. It’s time to teach people how they can harness their power to create enduring change. It’s time for “turning points” in advocacy, policy and service.

My personal turning point was a long time in the making. I am the oldest of six children born to a preacher’s family in a small southern Louisiana town. With half a dozen of us, my siblings and I made an instant choir and a traveling art show. My younger brother David brought home strays – pets, people, anyone who needed a little extra care. We didn’t call this “volunteering,” and “service” was where we went every Sunday with Daddy standing at the front of the congregation. These activities didn’t have a name – it was simply the way we lived.

Until I became a single mother my senior year in college, I had big plans to become a lawyer or a broadcast journalist. But bringing a sweet, tiny, precious little girl into the world made me re-evaluate my life and the way I wanted to raise my Valerie. I didn’t want to depend on my parents or the system for support. I vowed to make my own way and to raise my girl with the same character-building activities with which I was raised.

I became an AmeriCorps working for the Saint Mary Community Action Agency to raise funds for a community housing project. The first step was a mapping activity to understand the current state of housing in the rural, 10-parish community that Saint Mary’s served. My turning point came on the day that I visited an old sugar cane plantation that had turned into a share cropping community and later housing for poor families. On this beautiful old farm lived a lively group of hard-working, welcoming, weathered individuals. But their living conditions were horrible with semi-permanent structures and barely any protection from wind and rain. Upon seeing that level of poverty in my own little community, I knew that my job as an AmeriCorps was no longer a transition for me, that I had to make a difference for me, for my daughter, for my little hometown and for my world.

It’s 17 years later and I am proud to work on the world’s largest Conference on volunteering and service. I volunteer at my children’s schools and my church, I serve on the board of directors for an organization that makes a direct impact on my community, I teach and mentor, and I am constantly inspired and re-energized to do more and better work by the amazing people around me.

That’s the story of my turning point. What’s yours?