What was your most meaningful experience with CMF?

Let’s see, it really is quite hard for me to find the words to express how meaningful my experiences have been with CMF. There is no better feeling than being able to tell someone that you can help and I am so thankful for having gotten to learn that through the Foundation.

In looking back through out all these years, I would have to say that my relationship with one specific student, Leslie, through the Mentor Program is something that I am most proud about. When I first met Leslie, she was top of her Senior High School class had decent SAT scores yet she was told by her college counselor at her school in the Bronx that Manhattan College would be her best bet for her in terms of her grades and a scholarship… oh and “they also would give her a free computer.”– which she liked too.  Being that she was so driven I looked into some other college choices for her. I went to CMF’s college counselor for guidance and was told that Leslie should try for MIT or Columbia.

Leslie ended up getting a full scholarship at Columbia University and is now an working as an engineer at Proctor & Gamble.  We have continued to stay in touch to this day. While she was a Junior at University I apparently even inspired her to fulfill her dream to go abroad to Africa after hearing about my visits there where she worked in Ghana for a micro-finance brigade.  I remember sharing this news with Mrs. Morrison and of course she wanted to help, not only fund her trip yet the Foundation also was able to help buy medications for the brigade as well.

When Leslie returned from her trip she wrote to me:
I hope everything is going well. I just got back from Ghana yesterday. It was an amazing experience that I wish to repeat every year. As part of our micro-finance project, we introduced a shareholder model to micro-bank of a small, rural community. It was a life-changing experience.

I guess all I really did was give her the confidence to try for a better school and through that both of our lives have changed through sharing our experiences with each other in ways that I wish I could describe and having such a friendship simply makes me so happy.