Many college students and recent graduates look to volunteerism and nonprofits as a means to gain experience and bolster their resumes. For Learning Life intern John Charles Hanley (who goes by Johnny), however, non-profit work is not just a temporary stop on the road to a career, but his intended path in life.
A native of Virginia, Johnny attended James Madison University, majoring in Justice Studies and minored in Interdisciplinary Religion, becoming President of the JMU Freethinkers and an active member of the Vietnamese Student Association. Johnny’s studies and independent reading spurred his interest in “using research in positive psychology to challenge the way our society thinks about happiness and meaningful relationships.” He hopes to start a non-profit to pursue this interest.
Accordingly, Johnny has taken internships with non-profits to learn about how they work, starting with Virginia Organizing. As Johnny explains, Virginia Organizing is “an organization that encourages those who have traditionally had little or no voice in our society to participate in issues that directly affect the quality of their lives,” from predatory lending to Social Security. With Virginia Organizing, Johnny helped organize grassroots events and projects, encouraged Virginia voters to become politically active, managed information tables to engage citizens on key issues, and represented the organization in meetings with local politicians.
Johnny started interning with Learning Life in October this year, working thus far primarily to help inform northern Virginia residents of our “buy local, learn local” holiday program through research, email and door-to-door outreach. Asked why he is interning with Learning Life, Johnny responds, “I volunteered with Learning Life because I am passionate about education as a tool for social change. I want to learn how to bring knowledge to a diverse audience because I hope to one day work to empower people with educational content.”
When he is not interning with Learning Life, Johnny is training to become a violin teacher. He has been playing violin since he was seven years old and hopes to use his expertise to earn a little extra cash and help people learn to play the instrument. But all this is preface to an exciting adventure on which Johnny will soon embark: around April 2014, Johnny will be moving to Cape Town, South Africa to join his girlfriend, who will soon be pursuing international development studies there.
We at Learning Life are grateful for Johnny’s work with us, look forward to working with him in the first months of 2014, and wish him the best in his move to South Africa and his developing career in non-profit education!
To learn more about interning or volunteering with Learning Life and other ways you can help, contact us at email@learninglife.info.
What We’ve Accomplished, Where We’re Going, & How You Can Help Now
Dear friends,
Last year, I founded Learning Life to nurture a wider culture of learning by spreading knowledge on everyday life surfaces, like napkins, cup sleeves, cereal boxes and metro posters. In so doing, Learning Life seeks to inform and empower more people by making information that matters to people’s lives – about health, financial literacy and free resources, about science, history, government, etc. – more widely available in everyday life.
Since I founded Learning Life with the help of advisors, volunteers, interns and donors like you we have:
1) Launched Learning Life’s interactive website, monthly e-newsletter (click here for the latest issue), and social media pages on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Pinterest, through which we disseminate educational content daily. For some of this content, check out and please “like” our Facebook page. We’re aiming to reach 1,000 likes on Facebook by December 31, and we’re close!
2) Purchased our first educational products (e.g., we’re turning fortune cookies into vehicles for learning!), developed 30+ quizzes on topics of public importance from U.S. women’s history to world geography, and initiated Q&As with experts on important issues, starting with terrorism.
3) We gained our first partnership with Washington D.C.’s Newseum to spread learning about JFK’s presidency on 10,000 napkins in DC area restaurants, through street theater, and online (more on this soon!).
4) We won a grant from the city of Alexandria, VA to promote its rich local history and museums while supporting local businesses (click here to learn more).
And, we have big plans for 2014. We are developing innovative ways to help tackle public problems, and new means to support our work, like fortune cookies that spread knowledge on topics of public value from government essentials to scientific breakthroughs.
But individual donors are vital. Nearly 3 of every 4 dollars of private funds given to U.S. non-profits every year come from individuals, not foundations or corporations. Learning Life itself relies on individual donations to fund a good portion of our work.
We’re currently working to raise $12,000 by December 31, and we’re more than two-thirds of the way there! Would you donate to help us reach goal? Four $250 donors, ten $100 donors, and fourteen $50 donors would get us to $12,000.
If you prefer, you can donate a smaller amount (e.g., $10, $20, or $25) monthly at the donation link below. Recurring monthly donations helps us build our long-term financial sustainability.
Your donation will help pay for our operational costs and our 2014 initiatives.
News Release: Something Unusual Happening in D.C. December 16
New Non-Profit Launches Creative Form of Public Education in the Streets of Washington D.C.
Contact:
Paul Lachelier, Founder, Learning Life. Cell: 617-905-5353. Email: paul@learninglife.info.
What:
On one day, Learning Life, a new and unusual educational non-profit, will be carrying out a creative series of events in the streets of Washington D.C. Learning Life will be performing street theater and distributing 10,000 corresponding interactive napkins (see adjoining image of the napkin) in restaurants at several high-traffic pedestrian locations in D.C. in order to promote public education about American political history, and particularly the presidency of John F. Kennedy in light of the 50th anniversary of his assassination this year.
This unusual project is a partnership between Learning Life and The Newseum. It is the first such initiative Learning Life is carrying out in the D.C. metro area, representing a new approach to public education, with more to come in 2014.
When & Where:
Monday, December 16, 11am-8pm in Dupont Circle, Union Station, Chinatown and Georgetown. See below for more precise schedule and locations.
Napkin Distribution Schedule:
Note: Times may change somewhat depending on traffic and other factors. Call Learning Life founder, Paul Lachelier, on his cell (number noted above) for more precise times on Monday December 16.
Napkin Distribution Schedule
11am: Chinatown-Penn Quarter
12pm: Adams Morgan
12:45: Dupont Circle
1:30: Georgetown
Street Theater Schedule
4:00-4:30pm: Dupont Circle Metro major exit on Connecticut Ave
5:00-5:30: Union Station main entrance/exit area
6:00-6:45: Chinatown Metro, performing at two exits on 7th St NW, one after the other
7:15-7:45: Georgetown, intersection of M St & Wisconsin Ave
Intern Spotlight: Anjali Jacob
One of our pleasures at Learning Life is discovering the talents of the people who volunteer and intern with us. This past summer, we happily discovered the artistic talents of one of our interns, Anjali Jacob.
Anjali is currently in her sophomore year as a psychology major at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. An honor roll student and National Honor Society member as a student at Chantilly High School in Chantilly, Virginia, Anjali was awarded a Presidential Scholarship to attend Marymount.
Given a keen interest in the arts and letters, Anjali writes both poetry and prose, blogs on current events and social issues, does photography, sings, and plays guitar and piano (the latter for 12 years now). In 2011-12, in her high school senior year, Anjali became art editor and manager for her high school’s literary magazine in the 2011-12 academic year. That same year, the magazine won a Columbia Scholastic Press Association award and first place in the magazine division for the Virginia High School League’s annual publication awards.
Anjali started her internship with Learning Life by gathering university contacts, and researching and writing up facts for website and social media distribution. But we soon discovered Anjali’s artistic talents when she used Photoshop to begin producing art work to accompany some of the facts we distribute – the combination of which our interns called “instafacts.” By the end of her internship in August, Anjali had produced 24 instafacts, one of which we display here with her profile. We used her material to launch a page on Pinterest, which you can access here to view all of Anjali’s art work.
Anjali also produced remarkably professional draft t-shirt and napkin designs for funding projects Learning Life is pursuing. As we told Anjali, she has a promising future in design if she wants it.
However, Anjali is keen on going to graduate school after college in order to become a licensed therapist. She aspires to help children suffering from mental and emotional disorders, and has accordingly worked in summer and after-school programs to help children in need.
Asked why she chose to intern with Learning Life, Anjali replies, “I was looking for something that had a platform I could believe in, one that I felt was worth putting time and energy into. After some research, I found that Learning Life seeks to empower people through incidental learning, which is something I believed I could definitely contribute to through visuals and graphics. I’ve always felt that ignorance is much too great a problem amongst both youth and elders today; taking this internship meant that I could actually attempt to do something about it.”
We at Learning Life greatly appreciate Anjali’s distinctive contributions to our organization and wish her the very best in her future. Thanks, Anjali!
To learn more about interning or volunteering with Learning Life and other ways you can help, contact us at email@learninglife.info.
Accordingly, Johnny has taken internships with non-profits to learn about how they work, starting with Virginia Organizing. As Johnny explains, Virginia Organizing is “an organization that encourages those who have traditionally had little or no voice in our society to participate in issues that directly affect the quality of their lives,” from predatory lending to Social Security. With Virginia Organizing, Johnny helped organize grassroots events and projects, encouraged Virginia voters to become politically active, managed information tables to engage citizens on key issues, and represented the organization in meetings with local politicians.
