leveling the playing field:an interview

Meet Isaac Maycock, Summer Seach's youngest donor

He’s thirteen years old, he loves sports, he thinks he might become a journalist, or maybe even a politician … and he is almost definitely Summer Search’s youngest donor! Isaac Maycock first found out about Summer Search by interviewing Sara Lipton-Carey, Program Director at our San Francisco site, for a school project on philanthropy. For our first Summer Search Magazine, we thought we’d turn the tables on him …

Let’s start at the beginning: why did you want to interview Sara?

In 7th Grade at my school you have to do this project where you have to choose an issue: global warming, the separation of church and state, anything… I decided to do it on youth and poverty.

I think it’s a very important issue. Once of the main things I wrote about in my project was that these kids come into life with zero shot whereas I’m at a private school and all my friends are, and we have all the chances in the world. It’s a really important issue for me—the phrase I used in my presentation was “leveling the playing field”—and it’s not only for fairness’s sake, but for our whole society. We need everybody to have a chance no matter what their circumstances.

Once you’d picked your topic, why did you choose Summer Search?

My Mom’s friend, Andrea Nachtigall, is in touch with a bunch of organizations. She gave me the website, and an email for Sara Lipton-Carey. I went online and read about Summer Search, and I thought it sounded great, so I decided to email her.

I asked her why she thinks it’s important to help youth in poverty, and what sorts of situations she sees, and what difference Summer Search makes… everything, really. We agreed on a lot of things. There was one thing she said that I found really profound: low income high school students with an “A” average apply to college at the same rate as wealthier kids with a “D” average. There are these smart kids who could make a big difference but they don’t always get the chances they need. You’re never going to level the playing field one hundred percent, but even a little helps.

What did your final project look like?

I had to do a five-minute presentation to the class – for a couple of days, everyone presents their research and there are comments and questions and all that. This comes at the end of three month long unit in Judaic Studies class about philanthropy, and the presentations are your chance to make a case to your classmates and say this is why this issue matters, and this is why this organization helps, and this is why we should support them. Then you vote.

What did your classmates think about Summer Search?

The success rate really swayed the class – how the money isn’t just being thrown at kids haphazardly, but is being really invested. Summer Search is being run really well by great people, and it’s all over the country. That was important to us: making a difference here, but not just here. The other kids presented other nonprofits, but Summer Search was the organization we ended up voting for. It was the organization we wanted our money to go to. I think everyone wanted to give these kids the chance to make their life totally different and be the first one in their family to go to college … You know, this is a moment where you can change the course of a whole life, and it can really happen – and it really does!

What else did you learn about in your philanthropy unit?

Philanthropy is really what keeps society going. Our whole class was about how philanthropy is really necessary to keep a community together. Even though philanthropy generally comes from people who have businesses and are wealthy, it doesn’t have to be – you just give as much as you can. There’s always someone who needs it more than you, generally.

We spent most of the unit on how to make practical decisions about philanthropy. You need to know that what the organization is doing is good, and that it’s run by good people. Andrea Nachtigall told me how busy someone working in this field is, and Sara was willing to take time for me in the middle of the day, in the middle of interview season.  She didn’t know that there was going to be a donation or anything, but she still took time to give me everything I needed.

Sara told me that you also made a personal gift to Summer Search. Thank you! What made you want to do that?

We gave our class gift to Summer Search, but then I was given money for my bar-mitzvah so I decided to give some of that on top. It definitely feels good – you know you’ve made a difference. I also felt it is kind of … not an obligation, exactly, but I felt it was right for me to do my part.