After rounds of interviews, paperwork, and hours of meetings, Empower Orphans Penn State is finally Penn State’s newest club. It has definitely been a crazy semester but one that the executive board is very proud of.
Under the leadership of Executive Director, Dan Lordan, and Empower Orphans’ CEO, Neha Gupta, the main goal for the semester was to reach out and engage Penn State students and the community. The first general body meeting had about 100 attendees and had free food for all that attended, courtesy of OrderUp State College. Earlier that day, the board had the opportunity to visit St. John the Evangelist Catholic School in Bellefonte, PA. The students there brought in new or gently used winter clothes for the Center County Youth Services Bureau. There was a ton of help from some general members dropping the clothes off to the Youth Services Bureau.
Early in December, the board was able to revisit that same school, except this time several general members were able to join. This trip, the students at St. John the Evangelist brought in toys for the Holiday’s to drop off at Center County Youth Services Bureau. Empower Orphans members helped the young students at the school create holiday cards to drop off with the toys. There has been a ton of great feedback from the students of St. John the Evangelist and we can’t wait to work with them more in the future.
Neha Gupta, Empower Orphans’ CEO, is a strong believer is “youth helping youth” which is something this club was able to embody in our first semester. Not only were general members engaged, but younger children in the local community as well. The executive board hopes to keep that momentum going through this next semester and for years to come.
On behalf of Neha and the executive board, thank you for all of the support in the establishment of the first collegiate chapter. There are some really exciting things to come next semester that we cannot wait to announce. We couldn’t have done any of it without the excitement and support of our general members and the Penn State and local community.
Jess Frezza
Director of Public Relations