(Winter 2018) – For Becca Berry, a member of the Junior League of San Francisco, volunteering is about community and investing in the world around you in the hopes of creating positive change.
As one of her favorite quotes put it, “Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year, but when you volunteer, you vote every day about the kind of community you want to live in.”
So, volunteering with SMART and the Junior League was a clear and easy choice when Becca imagines an ideal community where education is accessible, people are supportive of those around them, and receive the same support in turn.
Becca’s service with SMART is helping to bring about that world. Along with 11 other pairs of Junior League volunteers and Scholars, she has been volunteering as a College Coach for Olivia, one of SMART’s senior Scholars. Together they’ve been tackling a range of college applications and are already beginning to turn towards college scholarship opportunities.
“As with any mentor/mentee relationship, the mentor often learns as much as the mentee. Olivia’s confidence and determination to reach her goals should be the paradigm for us all,” Becca said. “As she stated in one of her college essays, Olivia is ‘unapologetically’ Olivia.”
