Eli Chan – Fall 2020 Award Recipient

Our next Get Involved Award Recipient outside of the Palo Alto area is Eli Chan, a junior at Homestead High School. For his project, he has been helping distribute bookshelves and other supplies to low income families and children.

It all started when he read about how COVID-19 had been impacting low income families much more than high income families. Additionally, through his volunteer work with organization Reach Potential Movement, he realized that there were many kids who lacked access to important supplies that would keep them in school.

So he created a bookshelf distribution project in the hopes of increasing interest in school subjects among these less privileged students. Since then, he has gone on to carry out a 2nd bookshelf project and hopes to later expand his impact by introducing concepts in technology.

From this project, Eli has learned to communicate with others and coordinate meetings, and has learned how to work with a budget. However it affected him the most by inspiring him to continue volunteering and gave him more empathy for others in the community. In fact, one of the most enjoyable parts of his project was seeing the excitement and smiles from the kids when they received their supplies.

In the future, Eli hopes to make these events more regular and hopes to expand his impact on these families. View his project interview video here.

Lastly, it is not too late to apply for the fall Get Involved Community Engagement Award sponsored by Steve Young. Get recognized for your contributions to the community!