Dear friends and supporters of Celebrate EDU,
On September 9th, we celebrated our 5th birthday! I have spent the last week or so reflecting on what an incredible roller coaster ride the last 5 years have been and thinking long and hard about what to write to all of you to show my gratitude. I ended up writing something from the heart, so here it goes…
I am not going to use this time to tell you the story of my brother Brent inspiring me to start this organization, you already know that one. (If you don’t, watch it here!) I want to share a little bit more of what this experience has been like for me personally. I remember having the crazy idea to start Celebrate EDU like it was yesterday. I was at a point in my life where I was not happy and a little lost. I told my mom, Linda, about my dream of starting a nonprofit. Without any hesitation, she told me to GO FOR IT. I had never taken a business class and I had no clue where to begin. But somehow, I decided to do it.
This experience has been the hardest and most rewarding of my life.
From that point on, I hit the ground running. I dropped out of grad school and moved across the country to join SEED SPOT’s second cohort. From there I was a sponge: I learned how to fundraise, how to operate a nonprofit, our board member, Philippe Ernewein, helped me build curricula, I taught myself how to code in a weekend and built our first website. I did a little bit of everything. I was pushed to my limit too many times to count, dealt with crippling anxiety, and have been completely burnt out more than once.
I have also experienced amazing moments and achieved things I never dreamt about accomplishing. I started with the goal of building one program to teach entrepreneurship. As of today, we’ve built three. The size of our team and the reach of our impact continues to grow. I’ve had the opportunity to share our message at speaking engagements around the country and received recognition from organizations I admire deeply.
This experience has been the hardest and most rewarding of my life. I have grown so much as a person through the journey of entrepreneurship and I wouldn’t change a second of it. Today Celebrate EDU is expanding rapidly, and with that, experiencing a whole new set of adventures. I can’t wait to see what the next 5 years bring. To those of you who have a crazy dream and need someone to tell you to go for it, like my mom did for me, I’m telling you right now to GO FOR IT.
Thanks for following our journey, here’s to many more incredible years!
Jenny