Interns this Summer

Met Council would not be able to get so much done without the help of our interns! Here they are:

Jung Min Alice Cho

Alice is a rising junior for Columbia College and she majors in political science. She is excited to work for Met Council’s policy department and this summer, she expects to learn about how non-profit organization and politics interact in New York City. During her free time, she enjoys listening to music and learning to cook.

Alexandra Salerno

Alex Salerno is a rising sophomore at Columbia University majoring in Statistics and concentrating in Business Management. She is working for Sarah Felsenthal in public policy.

Shira Poliak

Shira Poliak is a rising senior at Barnard College, studying economics and history. She is interning for Ilene Marcus, and contributing to the Unmet Needs and Jewish poverty study projects.

Douglas Shore

Douglas will be working with Larisa Boas in Contracts Management. He studies History at Yeshiva University.

Monica Carr

Monica will be working in the Capacity Building department with Amanda Minkoff and Lisa Gaon. She is a JFEW Eleanor Roosevelt Scholar at Hunter College and studies Journalism and Creative Writing.

Serafina Smith

Serafina will be working in the Benefits Access department with Nicole Doniger. She graduated from Sofia University in Tokyo with a focus on Political Science.

Akiva Blander

 
Akiva graduated from Yeshivah of Flatbush in 2011 and is beginning Mcgill University in Montreal this Fall. This summer, he is working with Larisa, Tali and Michele in the Contracts Department.

Nicole Sherman

Nicole will be working with Larisa in the Contracts Management department. She lives in New Jersey but studies Psychology at the University of Arizona.

21^st Floor:

Fiona Guedalia

Fiona is working in the Communications department for Katie Nave. She is compiling different positive Met Council publicity. She is collecting quotes and updating the press room database along with many other projects.  Aside from Met Council, she also works on Fundraising for the Gimmel Foundation, an Israeli non-profit organization. She studies Psychology at the Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University.

Daniel Altaras

Daniel comes to us from the College Leadership Internship Program (CLIP), and will also be working with Larisa in Contracts Management. He studies English at Yeshiva University.

Carly Scheinberg (left) and Avital Benson (right)

Carly (left) and Avital (right) are in the Fundraising Department working with Emily Bellos.  They help manage our social media sites, Facebook and Twitter, as well as organize our upcoming fundraising events. Carly is a rising sophomore at Washington University in Saint Louis. Avital will be starting her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania this upcoming fall.

Effy Li

Effy is extremely excited to be assisting controller Daisy Bergman in the Fiscal Department on projects related to financial management.

Zeyi Fang

Zeyi is working for Daisy Bergman in the Fiscal Department this summer. Her main tasks are to support Daisy in reorganizing and managing Account Receivables. She is now studying in SUNY Binghamton for BS in Accounting.

Do you want to intern here in the fall? Email volunteer@metcouncil.org with your resume. We will be looking for Fall Interns shortly and will keep your resume on file. 

Making Compassion and Volunteerism Fashionable: Mary Bays, Volunteer of the Month

Congratulations to Mary Bays for being Met Council’s June 2012 Volunteer of the Month! Mary is an exemplary volunteer who continuously demonstrates commitment and kindness to staff and clients alike. With a full time career as a designer, she still makes time to lead volunteers once a month at our Senior Lunch Program, as well as give up free time to lend her sewing skills to Met Council. We cannot thank her enough for always going above and beyond for us!

Mary is originally from West Virginia and has made her life in NYC by becoming a successful designer. She not only creates her own beautiful pieces, but teaches her art to others at three NYC fashion colleges. She is compassionate and caring in her career and carries it onto her volunteering.

Mary is a dedicated Volunteer leader for Met Council’s Senior Lunch Program in which she coordinates volunteers who serve a hot kosher meal and socialize with low-income seniors. Volunteers in the past who have had the pleasure to work with her, commend her cheerful personality, professionalism, and style.

Here at the volunteer department, we are glowing about Mary because she never hesitates to lend her skills when called upon. She solely volunteered her free time to sew yards and yards of tablecloths for our lunch programs!

“Not only is she a role model in the fashion industry, but she is an inspiration for us here at Met Council’s volunteer department. I wish we had more willing and able volunteer leaders like Mary- we couldn’t have accomplished our goal of making and using reusable tablecloths without her” said Simone Carvalho, AmeriCorps volunteer coordinator for Met Council.

Mary says about her Met Council volunteer experience, “I love to see the happiness and sense of community that is created through the programs here. For me, I truly appreciate the chance to give back to a community and a city that has given so much to me.”

We are grateful and would like to acknowledge all her hard work by prizing her as June 2012 Volunteer of the Month!

Live Longer by Volunteering

I came across a couple interesting articles recently about seniors that are stepping up in their golden years to volunteer. By doing so, they are not only staying active, but living longer lives!


According to a Wall Street Journal article, "At a time of increased need and declining resources, volunteers age 55 and over are stepping in to fill the gaps," said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service.


It continues, "As the leading edge of the boomer generation reaches the traditional retirement age of 65, non-profits and communities should be poised to take advantage of this extraordinary wave of human capital that has the potential to transform our nation," said Dr. Erwin Tan, Director of Senior Corps at the Corporation for National and Community Service. "America's baby boomers are the largest, healthiest, best-educated generation in history, and they can leave an incredible legacy through service to others."


In addition to helping others, older volunteers are also helping themselves by living active, healthy lives through volunteering. A growing body of research points to mental and physical health benefits associated with volunteering, including lower mortality rates, increased strength and energy, decreased rates of depression, and fewer physical limitations. Volunteers aged 55 to 85 years who participated in two or more volunteer activities per week had a 63% lower mortality rate than non-volunteers. With nearly one in every five Americans projected to be age 60 or older by 2030, a great opportunity exists to engage older Americans in service to meet critical community needs while contributing to longer, healthier lives.


To top it all off, their gift has a real economic impact as well: 18.7 million older adults contributed on average more than three billion hours of service in their communities per year between 2008 and 2010. The yearly economic benefit of this service to the nation equals more than $64 billion. Way to go!

Making Volunteering a Punishment: Why or why not?

(Photo taken from MISFITS)


You know the movie scene: A guy crashes a car and then is sentenced to community service. He wears an orange jumpsuit and picks up litter on the side of the road (because of course picking up litter is the only volunteer opportunity ever available.)


Eric Lu from Time Magazine considers the question, however, of: “Why should community service even be a form of punishment?”

The principle behind using community service as punishment is that people can do some good in their community and see the error of their ways. However, Mr. Lu argues that this method actually stigmatizes volunteerism as a whole. “It broadcasts an image of community work as unpleasant and to be avoided – something that in fact must be compelled. By making service a lesser and often laughable form of punishment, we utterly degrade it.”

Do you think this is true? Or do you think that community service as a form of “punishment” has its virtues? Should community service continue to be used a “get out of jail” card?