It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized that my path was leading me towards the nonprofit sector–to the chagrin of my dad who wanted me to be in the business sector. Although I enjoyed business and love entrepreneurship, running Troy Camp for the kids of inner city Los Angeles was what really lit my fire. For the longest time I tried to deny that, but my path is clear, and has been for quite some time now–otherwise I wouldn’t be so happy at BUILD, now would I? And this is the very reason why we are starting Level 5 (www.levefive.org), so that young people who have heart and passion can also be equipped with the leadership and communications skills necessary to affect change in the nonprofit sector.

Amber was kind enough to send me this interesting article about how there has been a surge in nonprofit leadership and management courses at universities across the country. Read a few choice excerpts below, or check out the full article here:

KORBI ADAMS says she learned about nonprofit work from her high school clarinet teacher, who also directed her youth orchestra and would include Ms. Adams in her fund-raising activities.

“The community engagement stuff — it lit my fire,” said Ms. Adams, now 22. “I thought that was what I wanted to do: to combine arts and an outreach in nonprofit management.”

Ms. Adams decided to attend Arizona State University, where she majored in music and received a certificate for courses she took under the American Humanics program, which was founded in 1948 to encourage community work, including nonprofit administration, and is available at colleges around the country.

A 2008 graduate, she is now in what she calls her dream job, an education assistant at Childsplay, a nonprofit theater in Tempe, Ariz., where she works in arts education. “I’m learning how to very carefully mind the budget,” she said, noting that working with grant money requires carefully hewing to the bottom line.

The do-good desires of Ms. Adams and many members of her “Gen Y” cohort have sparked a surge in nonprofit management and leadership courses at colleges and universities, building on the example of the American Humanics certification program. More than 230 colleges and universities across the United States offer courses in those areas, up from 179 a decade ago, a 2007 study at Seton Hall University found.

Click here for the full article.

• Oct 31-Nov 2 - Los Angeles for Cindy’s wedding, hanging out with Billy, USC’s homecoming for a hot second, and visiting Ms. Van Hunnick, hopefully
• Nov 4-9 - Cancun for Shanif’s wedding. Yup. Cancun!
• Nov 14-15 - College Tour with BUILD sophomores and juniors. We’re going to St. Mary’s, Cal, UC Davis, and Sac State
• Nov 26-30 - Vegas for Thanksgiving with the family

If you are in a city near me, give me a call or email to get together. If you’re going down to USC’s homecoming, I’m going to try to make it to the tailgate before the wedding, and I’d love to see you!

And by the way the photo has nothing to do with this post, but I figured I would add it anyway since Kenyon and I had a lovely afternoon in the Mission drinking tea and coffee on Saturday.

Here are snippets of some of my favorite responses:

From Billy:

lakdsjfsdlkfjy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Doug:

Start by addressing his cynicism that only rich politicians should be elected. EEEEEK. and, hello, the US political system is very different from that of the Philippines. What’s sad is that he doesn’t believe in the whole system. Does he realize the way the Republicans have basically supported only the very wealthy, have undermined the middle class and the poor, and have exacerbated the inequities in our society and that TRICKLE-DOWN DOESN’T WORK!!!

From Michael:

Rey, you should realize that you are very lucky because even though your dad and you aren’t on the same page, you get to disagree with them.

And many of my one-on-one conversations with people have garnered this common response: “Yea, my parents are voting Republican, too.” At least I’m not alone…

The video should be the correct one now…

The video above was actually cut off in the process of uploading to Revver, so I’ve uploaded a new one, but it’ll take a day or so to get approved. Stay tuned for the full video!

Check out my first vlog/video rant about how my dad is a wannabe Republican, and how he is planning on voting for McCain.

Read his emails after the jump:

(more…)

No Video Responses have been posted yet.

Click here to post a video response.

THE PROBLEM
Over tea at a cafe, my friend Karla and I lamented the lack of development opportunities for young professionals of color in the nonprofit sector. We witnessed our friends leave nonprofit to pursue careers in the for-profit sector because of this very reason.

And then we saw the severe lack of leadership diversity in the nonprofit sector. Did you know that people of color lead just 16% of nonprofit organizations nationwide? Sixteen percent! We instinctively thought that in order for nonprofit organizations to level the playing field for their clients, they first need to level the playing field in the leadership of their organizations.

There is a large pool of talented and motivated young people of color that want to make a difference in their communities. But high barriers to entry such as noncompetitive wages, limited career advancement, and few professional development opportunities continue to deter young people of color from pursuing careers in nonprofit. This untapped talent pool holds the key to making a lasting impact in the diverse communities that nonprofits serve.

OUR SOLUTION
Because we are tired of waiting for change to happen, we are choosing instead to make change ourselves. Thus, we created the Level 5 Project to increase diversity in the nonprofit sector by developing and empowering a corps of young professionals from diverse backgrounds.
Our flagship project will be the Level 5 Fellowship, which will provide young professionals of color with challenging leadership training, including an intensive curriculum and dynamic hands-on mentoring. We will award up to six fellowships to motivated, driven students from diverse backgrounds to join the charter cohort by spring 2009.

We’re starting this social venture with optimism, and although we are starting relatively small, our sights are set on systematic sector-wide impact.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? HELP US RECRUIT!
Do you work on a college campus in the Bay Area? If you do, we’d love to set up info sessions and/or workshops to advertise our opportunity.

Do you know any awesome current college juniors? We are looking for current college students who represent diverse backgrounds and are passionate about a career in the nonprofit sector. Please pass on this email to your contacts.

WANT TO HELP IN OTHER WAYS?
As a small start-up social venture, we’re always looking for donations of expertise (PR,  finance, design, leadership), funding, and time (interested in volunteering or maybe being a mentor?). Let’s make this a community effort!

WANT TO APPLY TO THE LEVEL 5 FELLOWSHIP?
Check out the info sheet and application attached to this email or download them at joinus.levelfive.org. Applications are due on Dec 1, 2008!

Friends, we are on a mission, and you can read more about it at www.levelfive.org. Join our social change movement to empower next generation’s changemakers!

Thank you in advance for your support!
Rey

Rey Faustino
Level 5 Project   |   Empowering Next Generation’s Changemakers
415 704 4880   |   rey@levelfive.org   |   www.levelfive.org

Download the info sheet here.

Download the application here.