The Atlantic Region is so excited to welcome three summer interns to our Washington DC office. Below are the bios of our three interns, with added commentary from Kate Hays, Deputy Director, who heads up our DC office.MAX KIRSCHFrom Max: My name is Max Kirsch and I’m a rising senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD. I have a variety of interests, most notably web design/programming (I created my school newspaper’s website) and basketball. I learned about DonorsChoose.org during the 2007 Bloggers Challenge. I regularly read Engadget.com (a technology blog) and they were part of the competition. I read about the organization and decided to donate a small amount to finish a science project in Illinois. A couple months later I received the thank-you package complete with letters from the students and pictures of them using the microscopes that were funded. I was so impressed by the comprehensiveness of the feedback and the transparency of the donation process that I emailed Mr. Best asking if there was some way that I could volunteer in the Washington, DC area. Now I’m writing this on my third day working in the DC office and I couldn’t be more pleased with my internship. I’m eager to meet the people that make this great organization possible!From Kate: Max has, in three days, demonstrated his range of abilities, from excel guru, to knowing more about wireless internet cards than the AT&T guy, to mastering Skype emoticons, and quickly becoming our local technology help desk.JAMES GRANTFrom James: My name is James Grant, and I am a rising senior at Georgetown University majoring in American Studies and Political Economy. I was first introduced to DonorsChoose.org by a fellow Baker Scholar at Georgetown named Greg Pope. The Baker Scholars are a select group of college students who are interested in business and community service. Each year, we visit New York to speak with leaders and entrepreneurs in a variety of fields, and the year before I was accepted, the Bakers met with Charles Best. Greg told me about the goals and ideas behind DonorsChoose.org, and I could not help but want to work for this groundbreaking organization myself. I am excited to spend this summer with a purpose behind my efforts that I feel will make a difference in this country. This will be the first nonprofit where I have been employed, but I have worked at Warner Brothers Studios and the White House during college. Through DonorsChoose.org, I hope to gain an appreciation for my upbringing, as well as a sense of hope that all students can be as lucky as I have been.From Kate: If James had been at our staff retreat, his factoid might have been that he was a 2008 College Jeopardy Contestant. He’s also an aspiring novelist, prospective law school student, lover of DonorsChoose.org thank-you packages, and soon-to-be Mustaches For Kids guru. [James! Didn’t I tell you you’d be required to grow a mustache to fulfill your internship requirements?!]ADAM ARONOWFrom Adam: I’m Adam Aronow, a rising sophomore at Tufts Unversity, and I just started as one of the DC summer interns. I had heard about DonorsChoose.org from my parents and went to the DC office’s Open House in May, where I found out about the internship. As I learn more about DonorsChoose.org, I regularly admire the innovation and creativity that accomplishes much needed results for classrooms. As for myself, I spend my free time practicing Tae Kwon Do and photography. On the days when I’m not here, I volunteer at a Spanish Senior Center, where the old women flirt with me or make fun of my Spanish, and sometimes, when I’m really lucky, both at the same time. I’ve enjoyed my first day and I look forward to the rest of my time here.From Kate: Adam, as you can likely tell, has a fine sense of humor, and some of his computer artwork today indicated a healthy spirit of competition and fun that clearly demonstrates he deserves his slot on the Atlantic Team (or as we like to call ourselves, the A-Team). He also says that our copier is a lot snazzier than the Spanish Senior Center’s.
