Amanda Brown ’15
Check out two articles featuring Children and Youth First USA founded by Amanda Brown ’15. CYFUSA is the US branch of a Nepali NGO founded in 2008 to directly help marginalized children access their right to education. In Nepal, CYF runs a boarding school called Life Vision Academy, which currently provides a safe home and progressive education for 34 underprivileged children from across the country. These kids all come from challenging backgrounds, some are homeless, and all of the girls are the first of their families to receive a full education.
The USA team works independently in fundraising and grant writing to benefit the improvement and expansion of Life Vision Academy. The current goal is to purchase the school’s own property to escape the steep rent on the current plot, and then build a larger facility to accommodate 200 students by 2016.
On March 14, nearly 50 Colgate alumni, students, faculty, and parents came together for Colgate’s first ever off-campus Hackathon to create innovative ways to boost up CYF as part of Colgate’s Day of Impact . Hosted by Jeff O’Connell ’94 at his downtown Maker Studios offices, the Colgate Hackathon involved engineers, computer coders, and technicians who helped Amanda enhance the web presence of CYFUSA. Read the full article.
On March 20, Amanda wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post Business section entitled Why Colgate’s Day of Impact Matters. In the post Amanda speaks about her organization, why she has taken on this cause, and how the Colgate community has come together to support her efforts. Amanda is truly an inspiring young lady and will speak at the TIA reception during eWeekend about her experiences. Please plan on joining us.
(Left to right) Thought Into Action founder Andy Greenfield ’74, P’12, digital technology network volunteer Jeff O’Connell ’94, Amanda Brown ’15, and Thought Into Action Executive Director Wills Hapworth ’07 during Colgate’s Hackathon on Saturday, March 14
Currently at 40,000 feet, returning from the TIA weekend, a truly remarkable event for students and their advisors, I must share my observations and emotions resulting from Amanda Brown’s inspirational presentation and efforts. As she spoke of her experiences and project helping kids in a Nepali orphanage, I was literally brought to tears. An impromptu fund raising effort commenced. While alumni and parents participated, we saw students dig into their pockets to contribute. We saw some of the kids who were awarded well-deserved funds from the TIA project earlier this weekend, donate to this amazing cause. This was a shining moment for Colgate. I was honored to have seen it. Congratulations Amanda. God Speed.