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It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write a blog post. I’ve been really busy; working on multiple projects with various local nonprofit organizations and trying to re-envision the future of co-mads based on some opportunities that have come up. All great things! Growth is uncomfortable, and if it’s not, it’s probably not real growth.

Anyway, I’d love to tell you about an organization I’ve been involved with over the past couple of months. They deserve more awareness around their story and mission.

A couple months ago, Lisa Buoniconto reached out to me after hearing about co-mads through Startup Grind. We met a few times, and I started to learn more about her work and passions. I was taken aback by her story and selflessness.

She and her husband Todd Hayes founded a nonprofit called Empower Ethiopia. Since adopting two boys from Ethiopia, in 2007 and 2011, they have taken multiple trips back to the country to visit birth family and keep the boys in touch with their native culture. During one of the trips back, they were introduced to Let Us Change, an approved Ethiopian NGO that is responsible for the care of over 90 children who had been previously homeless.

Inspired, they decided to head back home to the Capital Region and form a partner organization, Empower Ethiopia, to ensure the children have access to adequate nutrition, schooling, health care, and a nurturing environment. Through their immense fundraising efforts, they have been able to do just that.

Lisa and Todd are incredible people who have given so much of their time, energy, effort, and skill to this selfless cause. The fact that they live in my hometown makes me extremely proud.  People in my community are doing unbelievable things and I want to shout it from the rooftops! I feel like it is my duty to use this platform to highlight people like Lisa and Todd doing great work in our local communities and abroad, so I will continue to do so.

I invite you to learn more about Empower Ethiopia by visiting their website and coming out to support some of the fun events they have planned this summer, link here. You will most certainly see me there!

Follow them on Facebook and Instagram to show your support and follow along with their important work!

FB: @EmpowerEthiopiaNOW, IG: @Empower_Ethiopia

I was born and raised in the Capital Region. I love this place. I’ve been to so many places around the world and I still choose to live here, for many reasons. Besides my family being here, it’s a great place to make an impact as a young person and a wonderful place to start a new business or tackle a new innovative idea. There is so much development taking place, there is so much culture, diversity, and creativity…I could go on.

I hear a lot of people talk negatively about where they’re from or of the places they are currently living in. I think a lot of it is just the fact that people get stuck in the drudgeries of everyday responsibilities, and don’t actually take the time to explore the gems in their own backyards.

So, I’m challenging you. Get out and get lost in your neighborhood, or in the town over. Drive a half hour to spend the day in the city adjacent to yours. Instead of staying home doing laundry on Sunday, take a few hours to explore a new coffee shop or lunch spot. Go spend some time reading next to that pond that you drive by everyday, but never stop to enjoy.

I challenge you to do these 11 things this summer…

• Find a local park that you have never been to before, pack a picnic lunch with local goods, and spend a few hours enjoying nature.
• Google festivals that are going on in your town or the town over. Support the local vendors and enjoy.
• Free concerts are always super fun, and also a great way to meet other locals in your area.
• Write down five restaurants that you’ve heard of, or have seen your friends posting about on social media…make a pact to visit those five spots this summer!  
• Have work/studying to do? Want to catch up on some reading? Look up five coffee shops you’ve never been to and get it done!
• Do you like craft beverages? SAME. New breweries and distilleries are popping up everywhere! Invite your friends for a day of drinking the good stuff.
• Are there coworking spaces where you live? Check out the events they’re hosting this summer. It’s a great way to expand your local network and become more familiar with the innovative projects going on where you live. Perhaps you can get involved somehow.
• Buy a ticket for a play or musical performance at a local theater/venue. Try to attend something that may be a little outside of your comfort zone.
• Join a club or group of some sort. I think meeting new local, cool people with similar interests is a great way to expand your love for your city. They’ll probably teach you some stuff about your area that you didn’t know before.
• Volunteer and give back to an organization doing local work.
• Invite friends or family from out of town to come visit. Draw up an itinerary of the places you love most around you. When they visit and start telling you how dope these spots are, you’ll feel a sense of pride for where you live.

Now, GO OUT AND LOVE WHERE YOU LIVE! Need help finding the coolest local spots? You know where to find me. Enjoy!

Bushwick, Brooklyn has become a hipster haven. Its streets are lined colorful with street art, and you’ll find a unique local coffee shop, restaurant, boutique, or art gallery on every corner and in seemingly abandoned buildings. It’s a place I’ve been meaning to explore for a long time.

After chatting with some BK locals, I decided that I would embark on a ‘travel & do good’ adventure to get a good feel of the neighborhood’s culture. I started doing some research on effective local nonprofits, working specifically with the Bushwick community and stumbled upon RiseBoro Community Partnership.

After doing some research and vetting of other organizations, I spoke to Martha, Farm Manager and Educator, of their fairly new community garden/farm initiative. Not only were her knowledge and expertise apparent, but I could feel her passion through the phone. You could tell she really believes in the overwhelming positive impact this project has had on the local community.

I was sold! I organized a group of volunteers to go down one Saturday morning for four hours of hands-on, down and dirty work in the farm/garden. (Big shout-out to all you volunteers, you rock.) Martha gave us a tour of the farm (not only of the herbs/veggies/flowers, but of the compost toilet they built and all of the other cool amenities she designed) and talked about their programming, which includes free community cooking workshops, a place where neighbors can come drop off their compost, after-school educational programs, donations of their products to local families/food pantry, and more. What I love about the space is that many of the local children have never been able to dig in the dirt, or immerse themselves in nature due to their urban location, and this farm provides them that outlet.

We spent the day cleaning/sealing the chicken coop (yes, they have three chickens and one of their name’s is Tweety – love it), building an outdoor kitchen area, assisting with the compost processing, putting in posts for the tomato crop, and other miscellaneous projects. We laughed, we bonded, and we helped an organization in need of extra hands.

This was the type of volunteer experience I hope to give every single one of my co-mads travelers…working with a hands-on effective organization, connecting/conversing/working in a team with new people, and the satisfactory feeling of starting and completing an important task. co-mads not only works to provide this experience for all volunteers, but we ensure that our work is also beneficial for the organization we’re supporting.

We all had an incredibly fulfilling and inspiring experience with RiseBoro. One of the co-mads who participated lives in Brooklyn, and is likely going to become a regular volunteer participant at the farm. These are the connections we build!!! It is the most rewarding part of this “job” for me.

I’m going to plan a “Getaway with a Purpose” trip to Bushwick for two nights soon, in which we partner with RiseBoro and explore the many local cultural gems of the neighborhood. Let me know if you’re interested in participating so you can be the first to hear of this opportunity!

Can’t wait for the next adventure. Talk soon!

(Let me preface this post by saying I DO NOT think college is for everybody. I do not think you need to go to college to be successful in a career. I do not think that you are “smarter” if you’re a college grad. This is a discussion for another time, but I did want to make my stance clear.)

A lot of people ask what my background and education is in. I went to the University of Vermont and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, with a minor in history. Now, I own a travel company. Sometimes I look back at the hours/months/years I spent studying the inner-workings of cell processes and organic compounds and think…why the hell did I do that to myself?

I didn’t have much of a social life in college. When I wasn’t in class, I was studying. I spent years of my life studying incredibly challenging curriculum that I NEVER use in my everyday life.  Seems like a big waste of time and energy right…

Well, despite me (and 99% of my friends / fellow millennials) being buried in student loan debt, it wasn’t a big waste of time and energy. I learned so many skills during my time as a bio major and they’ve all been vital in starting, owning, and building a business. Let me tell you a few…

• The Scientific Method – a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. I use this every single day, to acquire knowledge and perfect processes when it comes to marketing, content, networking, and so on. I do background research, I construct a hypothesis, I test my hypothesis, I analyze results and I build my model from it.

• Problem Solving: This goes hand in hand with the scientific method, but the internal process I use to solve business problems is very much in line with the problem-solving skills I would use to alter an experiment in the lab.

• Preparedness: Scientists always want hard evidence to back up a claim. Whether it was handing in a report or making a presentation, I had to come prepared with factual numbers or hardened analytical figures that would back up every statement I made. I would say that a conscious consumer wants the same. When you make a claim to a consumer, a sponsor, or a financial backer, you better come prepared with hard evidence to back your claims up.

• Critical Thinking: I owe my professors a big thank you, as the way I evaluate options and make decisions as an authoritative figure in my business is directly correlated to the way I evaluated options and made decisions in the lab.

• Confidence: The science classes I took in college were excruciating. It made me reconsider if I was smart enough for a career in science (pretty much every day). Well, I survived, I got damn good grades, and I certainly became much more confident in my intellectual abilities in doing so.

So, thanks to science, I have embarked on my entrepreneurial journey! Moral of the story…it’s never too late to start something new. Your past experiences and expertise will translate, in some way, to the venture you want to undertake next.