Hi all,

This is Leo from Portland, here to tell you about the marathon organizing month we’ve just had. May has been a crazy whirlwind of emotion/progress and it doesn’t look to be letting up soon!

First off, we have confirmed Memorandums of Understanding with all of our community partners! Not only will they be receiving the data that we collect about community interests this summer, but they will also work directly with our participants to refine and upgrade their engagement strategies! As we say, an involved community is a strong community, and as organizers, it is part of our duty to get people involved in the spaces in which they live. What could be more elementary?

May has also been a crazy recruiting month for us. We have not only had rolling admissions from the Grand Aspirations national admissions process, but we in Portland have started another round of recruiting in our public universities in high schools. I personally spoke to over 60 college students about two weeks ago, and many are eager to create the change they want to see in the world!

All in all, it’s been a crazy month for us in Portland. Just when we could use it to slow down, it speeds right back up again. It’s all for the better though… we’ll have a dynamite Summer of Solutions this year!

PS. Congrats to all the programs that have recently kicked off, and any that are kicking off in the near future!