Volunteer, Major League Baseball (June ’13-July ’13)

Every year, in preparation for the All-Star Game, Major League Baseball hosts a unique event in the host city called Fan Fest. It is a great opportunity for all ages to celebrate and engage with the All-Star festivities at an affordable price.

Months prior to the event, Major League Baseball asks for volunteers from cities and areas surrounding the All-Star game (in 2013, it was in Queens) to provide a number of potential services during the weeks leading up to All-Star weekend. The selection process was long, beginning in January 2013 and culminating in my acceptance as a volunteer in early May. In mid-June, I attended an informational session at Citi-Field, during which I was given the opportunity to talk to some of the people that run this event year in and year out, as well as major press and event representatives for the New York Mets and Major League Baseball. This was something that I chose to do out of personal interest, and I am very fortunate to have been given the chance to be exposed to the inner workings of this great organization.

At the WFAN 660 AM booth during Fan Fest 2013

I volunteered a grand total of twenty hours over three days at Fan Fest, which was hosted at the Jacob K. Javits Convention center. On any given day, I assisted in helping guests find various places around the rather large convention center, as well as fill in for other volunteers on short notice. During my longest day spent at the convention, I was given the opportunity to help maintain the home run derby batting cages, a rather fast paced attraction that garnered a lot of traffic. This was extremely fun to me, being able to run around and hustle to clean up the cages, as well as be given the chance to make quality conversation with guests as they waited. Overall, this was a great opportunity and I would not hesitate at the opportunity to do it again.

President, Carle Place HS Student Organization (September ’09- June ‘10)

Running for president of the student organization at my high school was a plan that I had for a while, but was certainly difficult to execute. I was new to the school in 9th grade, but by well into my junior year, I was sure that this was an endeavor that would be worthwhile.

In a way, I always wanted to vice president for no good reason. However, when it came to light that out of all the students running for office, treasurer and president were the only unopposed slots, I knew that I couldn’t let the fear of losing keep me from running for president. So I decided to run, spending a great deal of the two months prior to the election campaigning and preparing ideas to make myself a more viable candidate for office. Holding a class office position was something that I had zero experience with, but was sure that I’d be able to approach it with great interest and passion. In preparation for the election, I created posters, as well as a speech that was both printed in the school newspaper and addressed during a school-wide assembly. In mid-May 2009, the election was over and despite the odds pinned against me, I managed to win, setting into motion one of the busiest and most active years of my life.

Of the many things I ended up being involved with, the first and last event that I had the pleasure of preparing and assisted in running was the annual senior citizen luncheon, held each May. The senior citizens legion in the district is very active and I’ve had the pleasure to become personally acquainted with a few of the position holding members.

Every sports season, fall, winter and spring, the school hosted a pep rally which the student organization conducted and ensured the smooth execution of for all sports and clubs. This also entailed a spirit week surrounding the upcoming pep rally, which we delegated the days for and sought out winners for most spirit prizes. The most important of the three pep rallies was the fall, the one in which homecoming takes place. Our organization played an integral role in the set-up and function of the homecoming dance, as well as many of the festivities surrounding the football game.

Our school’s biggest event is the annual Battle of the Classes fundraiser, which was in it’s third year while I was president. Still a fairly young event, there was an extensive level of planning and marketing involved in conducting the fundraiser, as well as simultaneously raising money. The cause that our fundraiser sought out was Autism awareness, and thousands of dollars were ultimately raised and donated to AHRC of Nassau County.

Additionally, one of the main tasks I often took on alone was the maintenance of a soda machine that provided our group with income. This was an often frequent tasks, the machine sometimes being in need to refill twice a week. Although the financial aspect of the organization was not exactly in my hands, my constant maintenance of the machine, removal of change that hadn’t been emptied in years, and unjamming of the coin slot, all had a significant increase in the rate of income that we acquired over the course of the school year.

In addition to the aforementioned, these were a number of other ways in which I remained engaged with the school community during my senior year:

• Hosted number of assemblies, including annual student talent show
• Delivered school wide announcements every Mon, Wed & Fri
• Explored innovative ways to increase student participation in school sanctioned activities