CAUSE BOARD Spring 2011

Advisor: Anita Macgovern
Co-Chair
: Emma Puka-Beals
Co-Chair: Zilin Cui
Treasurer: Songqiao Yao
Secretary: Premela G. Schutt
PC Liaisons: Ariela Lovett, Elisa Loeser
WebMistress: Aniqa Osmani

Additional Board Members: Keshia Pendigrast, Natalia A. Diaz, Alexis Myers, Mahdiya Ahmed & Jenna M Ruddock

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Advisor/PC Liason: Anita Magovern
Email: amagover

Anita is originally from New Jersey, and she has spent many years living and working in community development in Tanzania. She loves working with the students on CAUSE who are committed to creating and sustaining volunteer opportunities out in the community and making them available to all MHC students.

 

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Co-Chair
: Emma Puka-Beals

Email: pukab20e

Emma is an Environmental Studies Major with a concentration in Sustainable Development. She is from Lexington, MA and is part of the class of 2012. She currently volunteers with Horizons for Homeless Children and loves spending time with children. She first became involved with the CAUSE Board as a first-year after spending a gap-year in Dominica as a literacy tutor and community organizer. She loves CAUSE for its highly motivated and inspiring members, and the feeling of working together to accomplish good.

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Co-Chair: Zilin Cui

Email: cui20z

Zilin, class of 2011, is a Spanish and Economics double major from Beijing, China. She joined CAUSE her first semester as a mentor for Youth Rap in Jarvis Heights, Holyoke. She's been tutoring since middle school in Beijing, China and loves working with kids of all ages. When she saw the opportunity to give her time, she jumped at the chance! Tutoring helps her reflect on how she learns and how to best communicate that knowledge to the kids while helping them find an interest in what they study. Since then, she has become the Project Coordinator for Jarvis, translated for an education symposium for CAUSE, and now is ready to reach out to an even wider community to make a positive difference as a co-chair!

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Treasurer: Songqiao Yao
Email: yao22s

Insert really cool stuff about Songqiao!

 

 

 

 

 

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PC Liaison: Elisa Loeser

Elisa is a senior majoring in Politics and minoring in French. She is from Rye, NH, and has been active with CAUSE since her first year. She attended the Habitat for Humanity trip to Jonestown, MS, over spring break of 2008. In fall 2008, Elisa was a tutor for the Hussein Family Tutoring Program, and became a Project Coordinator for the program in spring 2009. She believes that community service should play a role in every citizen's life. Elisa has also worked closely with the Community Based Learning (CBL) Program, and hopes to help better connect CAUSE with CBL.

 

 

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Board Member: Ariela Lovett
Email: lovet20a

Ariela is a senior from Livingston, New Jersey. A double major in Critical Social Thought and Spanish, Ariela's academic focus is on U.S. poverty policy and the poverty industry. She joined the CAUSE family beginning her first year at Mount Holyoke when she participated in the Westfield Youth Detention Center Book Group. In her sophomore year, Ariela initiated a new tutoring and mentoring project through the Care Center in Holyoke, where she tutors young mothers for the GED exam. Ariela spent the spring semester of her junior year abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where she sought out an opportunity to teach English to young children in a low-income neighborhood. Ariela is committed to promoting CAUSE projects on campus because she believes strongly in the responsibility educational institutions have to their neighboring communities, and believes Mount Holyoke women should harness their abilities to affect change in the greater Pioneer Valley area.

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Web Mistress: Aniqa Osmani
Email: osman22a

Aniqa, Class of 2013, is a Biochemistry and Psychology double major from Dhaka, Bangladesh. A fresh new South Asian member on the CAUSE Board, who joined actively in the org during the Fall semester of her Sophomore year. Since the beginning of her High School, she has been involved in international organizations such as “Red Crescent Society”, “CARE, Bangladesh” (tutoring uneducated factory women workers in the slum areas) and ICDDR,B (International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, where she served as a volunteer). Since her time in fifth grade, she has tutored under-privileged children right after her classes were over for the day. Currently, she is involved in tutoring the kids in the Hussein Family in West Springfield, which is a CAUSE Project. She loves the perfect balance of academics and community service at Mount Holyoke. She has a strong will power to combine humor & knowledge with her passion of volunteering & fight for social justice. Hence, in the process trying to bring about a safer, happier and better living conditions in the worldwide community!!!

Board Member: Keshia Pendigrast, E-mail: pendi20k

Secretary: Premela G. Schutt, E-mail: schut20p

Board Member: Natalia A. Diaz, E-mail: alvar22n

Natalia, class of 2013, is a Politics and History double major. Her academic interests include Latin American Politics and Migration Studies. She is from Mexico City, but has also lived in Canada, New Zealand and Lebanon. She volunteers with Horizon’s for Homeless Children and also works with the Peck School in Holyoke, MA. She loves interacting with the children and parents, as well as with the members of the MHC community who work with CAUSE. She became involved with CAUSE during her first-year, volunteering with Best Buddies and working with local organizations in the Pioneer Valley. She was also an active member of several community service groups in High School, including projects to aid tsunami-impacted schools in Sri-Lanka and war-torn families in Gaza. She is passionate about helping others, growing and learning through collaboration and using public policy to instigate positive change.

Board Member: Alexis Myers, E-mail: myers22a

Lexi Myers, class of 2014, is from Phoenix, Arizona. She became interested in community service when she began volunteering regularly in high school. During her senior year she volunteered at the Sojourner Center, a local domestic violence shelter through her Service Learning class. Through her research and volunteer work she was inspired by the strength and courage of the women. This experience moved her and she is most passionate about work against domestic violence, especially against women and children. During her first semester at Mount Holyoke she volunteered at Safe Passage (a domestic violence shelter in Northampton) and the Peck School in Holyoke. Currently, she is volunteering at Safe Passage and helping at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with an organization called Sisters on the Runway. This organization is a fashion show that helps raise awareness and money for domestic violence. She believes that by raising awareness and letting people know about this problem, domestic violence can be stopped or at least greatly reduced. Lexi also feels that community service should be a part of everyone’s lives and that through service we can learn from and share different passions with others.

Board Member: Mahdiya Ahmed, E-mail: ahmed25m

Mahdiya Ahmed is a freshman at Mount Holyoke College with a passion for community service. She is from Vancouver, Canada but has lived most of her life across the Midwest. Her interest in community service began in middle school, and she became more involved during her highschool years. She was President of Community Leadership Force (CLF), which focused on raising awareness for local and national issues while encouraging student members to take on leadership roles. CLF sponsored the Down Syndrome Research Foundation, SHARE Family & Community Services, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Hope for Freedom Society by organizing various fundraising events. On another note, Mahdiya loves working with people of all ages. She has volunteered at the local hospital manor, art gallery (for children's art camps), and library (helping ESL kids). She is currently involved with the Hussein Family Tutoring Project and Peck Community School. As a C.A.U.S.E. Board Member, Mahdiya hopes to continue living her passion by volunteering in the community and by raising further awareness of pressing social issues.

Board Member: Jenna M. Ruddock, E-mail: ruddo22j

Jenna is a junior-year transfer student from UMass Amherst, majoring in Critical Social Thought with a concentration in international ethics and working on completing the Five College International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies Certificates. As soon as she arrived at Mount Holyoke, she began looking for opportunities to continue the local service work she had begun while living in Amherst, so when she found out about C.A.U.S.E. she was excited to get involved as soon as possible! During her time at UMass she was involved with the honor college’s Community Service Learning program in Holyoke, interning with Enlace de Familias, a community-based organization dedicated to supporting both teen and single parents and also other Holyoke-based initiatives. Prior to university, she was involved with and also ran a number of student-based philanthropic initiatives, most focusing on raising funds for local projects or increasing community awareness of ongoing global issues. During the summer she works as a teaching assistant at an academic program for high school students in NY. She strongly believes that everyone with time, energy, and skills to contribute to their communities should find or make opportunities to do so whenever possible.

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Studying Abroad (Spring 2011)

Name: Jenna Lempesis
Position: Secretary
Email: lempe20j

Jenna's major is Politics with particular interest in American politics and institutional racism; Anthropology minor. She is originally from Lexington, MA. She lovse the spirit of service at Mount Holyoke. With the passion for and dedication to philanthropy that so many Mount Holyoke students show, she believes that a venue like CAUSE can really give everyone a chance to make the kind of impacts volunteers aspire to. As for her involvement in CAUSE, she particularly enjoys tutoring with the Hussein Family Project.

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Name: Ali Anderson

Position: Co-Chair
Email: ander22a

Ali is a Politics major and a Law and Public Policy minor in the class of 2012. She is from Wilmington, Delaware. Ali became involved with CAUSE during her first year when she organized a screening for Invisible Children. She tutors second graders at Mossier Elementary School and enjoys getting to know the South Hadley community through service. If she could have any super power she'd want to fly.