Justin Lee

Georgia, USA
IAG 2019

“My first seminar, called Capitalism, Slavery, and the Origins of Modern Finance, was hosted by Patrick Barker, who made a connection between the rise of capitalism and its roots in the fall of the slave trade. As I left the small study room in Jonathan Edwards College after the seminar, I could not have fathomed what was left in store for the program.”

In the fall of 2018, a non-profit organization moved in next to my parents’ office complex. After a long conversation with the head director, I found out that they had art and dance classes for students from low-income and single-parent households in my community. While there was a high demand for academic tutoring lessons, the director could not find any teachers who could donate their Friday evenings to helping these children. After careful planning, I decided to create classes and lesson plans for these students before they went over to their dance lesson. I was able to recruit some of my school friends and underclassmen to help facilitate the classes.

After attending YYGS, I reached out to a program called Social Innovators Academy, sponsored by Giving Point, in my hometown of Atlanta. SIA helped me expand my tutoring group by giving me a template to expand my group into a formal non-profit organization to reach more students in my community who also wanted but mostly could not afford help with their schoolwork. I am proud to say that today, our organization helps teach 15 to 20 students on a weekly basis on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Helping students who have fallen through the cracks of the education system has motivated me ensure that they are meeting the standards required of their more affluent peers in both Clarkston, a city with many refugees, and my own community, a textbook example of American suburbia. After all, if we truly want to use education as the path for our youth to improve their living conditions, why should we prevent a substantial portion of valuable human capital from accessing the resources necessary to become a more educated society?

Ambassador Year: 
2019