Feeding America
In sixth grade I was given an opportunity to engage in a semester-long community service project. I chose Feeding America. I sorted and donated food at their collection center which was then delivered to various local shelters and distributed to food insecure families all around San Diego County. I also raised $1400 with a friend by giving short presentations in front of local grocery stores and educating patrons about the hunger crisis in our community.
On this day, my friend Nicholas and I organized a canned foods drive for Feeding San Diego in front of a local grocer with the goal of educating the public about food insecurity in our community.
We collected over 50lbs of non-perishable foods plus raised $1,400 for the organization.
Encinitas For Equality
Each week for the past 3 years, I’ve had the opportunity to tutor elementary children from underserved schools in my local community through Encinitas4Equality. I’ve been working with the same boy since he was in 2nd grade, and witnessing his progress and growth over time with his self-esteem, math, and communication skills has given me insight into the developmental stages of education and self-efficacy. I’ve also participated in the annual Encinitas4Equality School Supply drives to collect and distribute much-needed supplies to the students, to include books, writing utensils, and computers.
This is sweet and precocious “A”, a second grade student, who struggles with reading and writing so we use phonics and art to work on sounding out vowels and consonants.
This is brilliant and curious “P” who is a second language learner and youngest of 5 siblings. He loves to play games so I engage him with different fun games like Uno to work on basic arithmetic.
Ikamva Labantu
I assisted in fundraising efforts during COVID to raise money for orphanages in South African townships. Subsequently, I had the opportunity to deliver donated household items, books, and toys directly to the kids during my service trip to Cape Town in 2022.
In the townships outside of Cape Town, South Africa there are so many children who live without the love and support of parents and family. They are still full of joy and gratitude for our visits. It was an honor to spend time with them. This is me showing the boys how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
Here’s my friend and I delivering new bedding to the kids. It’s hard to describe how happy they were!
Here I am doing my best to get this adorable and very awake baby to fall asleep.
Everyone here lives in a tiny 2 room home. They were so excited when we brought them colorful balloons.
Senior Village Sakura
I make frequent visits to the Sakura Japanese Senior Center in downtown San Diego where my grandmother is a member to provide musical entertainment during their weekly senior lunch hour. I coordinate trios and solo performances in order to build community across generations.
My cousins and I went to visit Sakura House to perform and included some Japanese folk songs for the seniors - they really appreciated and loved it!
My best friend and I went to spend time with the seniors at Sakura House and distributed homemade hand warmers because my grandmother said that their hands easily get cold as they get older.
Snazzy Saturdays
I started an online music festival which I hosted every Saturday for my community to help keep up everybody’s spirits during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown. I was able to enlist the help of other musicians, poets, magicians, comedians, writers, dancers, recipe-sharers, Rubik’s-cubers, and many other types of performers in my community to help everyone stay connected and engaged. The Saturday virtual festivals began with just my cousins and me performing for our grandparents and, by the end of our four month run, grew to about fifteen performers each week (with a waiting list!) and about forty audience members on Zoom!
This is me playing the piano for my Zoom audience at one of the installments of Snazzy Saturday during the COVID lockdown.
My dance colleagues and I before we take the stage for our performance at this very special event. It was one of the largest audiences we’d ever performed in front of so we were feeling very excited and nervous!
Haute with Heart:
St Madeleine’s
Sophie Center
Organized, choreographed, and performed at Haute with Heart, a fundraising event benefitting adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I recruited and led a group of dancers from my private studio, facilitated all rehearsals, communicated with the event coordinator, helped to choreograph, and performed the dances for this private event in front of an audience of 500+ at the Hilton Bayfront Hotel in San Diego.
Helen Woodward Animal Center - Surf Dog Contest
I volunteered to be a member of the social media team for Helen Woodward to capture images and engage with the 2 and 4 legged surf contest participants to promote the Surf-a-Thon event, raise awareness of our cause, and inform the community about the overarching mission of the Helen Woodward Animal Center.
This is Guinness, the 3rd Place Winner of the “Best in Surf” Award, being interviewed by a local news reporter.
The 18th Annual Dog Surf Contest, brought out canine participants, young and old, from novice to expert surfers, from around the country to support the life-saving programs and services of Helen Woodward Animal Center!
Oncology and Kids (OAK)
We performed dances for an audience of about 50 people, including families of and children fighting cancer. After the performance we invited the children to join us on stage where we helped them choreograph dances on their own.
This is the director of OAK briefing us about the children and the mission of the organization - to provide moments of joy for these incredible children who are bravely fighting cancer.
Looking at the body language of the kids, I think we succeeded in spreading joy with these courageous kids.
Cordelia Face Masks
During the pandemic, my mom and I created an e-commerce mask company where people could purchase masks through our website. Together, my mother and I hand-sewed cotton masks and donated all the money that was made from the mask sales to Ikamva Labantu. We donated over $1,500 to support the orphan care program in the townships of Cape Town.
My mom and I worked at the Leucadia Farmer’s Market on Sundays collecting leftover produce from local farmers.
Produce Good
ProduceGood is an organization which partners with local farmers and produce markets to decrease food waste and use their resources to feed/nourish underserved communities with fresh local produce. I worked for this organization before and during the COVID pandemic and gathered leftover produce at the end of the day at farmers markets and helped in the delivery to local distribution shelters including Jewish Family Services and the San Diego Community Resource Centers. During the pandemic, with most markets being closed, I visited small local farms and backyard orchards to harvest/glean their produce and transport the bounty to local feeding agencies. I worked for this organization for 2 years and became a junior Market Boss to facilitate and manage the collection of food at the weekly Paul Ecke Famer’s Market.
This is me collecting unsold produce from our generous local farmers and vendors at the Sunday market.
On this sunny day, I helped to pick over 75 baskets of fresh blueberries at a local farm which we delivered to the Jewish Family Services in San Diego, CA.
On this day, we were able to deliver an abundance of fresh produce to the Community Resource Center in Encinitas, CA.