Community Service Award

Back-to-School Backpack Drive: Will Chandrasekhar '17
Will has been volunteering as a math tutor for the past year with El Nido Family Centers, an organization that provides child and family services in underserved regions of Los Angeles. He has become increasingly involved with El Nido’s programming, further honing his own skills by serving as a videographer and editor to raise awareness about their mission. With the help of the Community Service Award, he plans to provide El Nido with substantial assistance for their back-to-school backpack program, including purchasing essential school supplies and organizing volunteers to prepare the backpacks for distribution to students. Will explains how his time at CEE encouraged him to continue giving back, saying that the values taught “both socially and academically will be with me through my life, guiding me and serving as the foundation of my experience in the world.”

Team Tobati: Alejandro Henriquez '17
Alejandro’s service project was inspired by a friend who shared their experience following six months of teaching English at the Macchi School in Tobati, Paraguay. After learning about the struggles faced by Tobati youth, Alejandro knew that he wanted to “improve the lives of these children and help them break the cycle of poverty.” His passion has led him to become co-president of a 40-member service group, Team Tobati, focused on raising awareness and directly helping disadvantaged students. With the Community Service Award, Alejandro will fund intensive English classes for disadvantaged students in Tobati who hope to ultimately earn scholarships to study in the United States. By supporting disadvantaged students in advancing their skillsets and setting them up for success, Team Tobati aims to create a better, more successful community and break the cycle of poverty in Tobati.

Sunday Lunch Drives: Anya Shah '17

Anya has been involved with Hang Out Do Good as a part of their coalition that collects lunches made by families across Los Angeles to distribute to other families who lack access to a healthy, stable food supply. Each weekend, Anya and her family bond while giving back by preparing and delivering 20-60 paper-bag meals. With the Community Service Award, Anya plans to expand the number of meals she can prepare and work to further combat food insecurity in low-income communities. Anya’s project is inspired by the mindset and intentions of CEE’s work with the West Hollywood Food Coalition, demonstrating CEE’s core values of caring and responsibility.   

2021 Recipients

Friends in Need: Carly & Aaron Platt '17, Alex Hahn '17, and EJ Chavez '17

Aaron, Carly, Alex, and EJ have worked with children from the Learning Lab at Hathaway-Sycamores, an organization that provides child and family services, for several years. In February 2020, they started a weekend basketball clinic program for children. When the sports clinics paused due to the pandemic, they helped Hathaway-Sycamores collect clothes, books, and food for the families. In June 2021, with the help of the Community Service Award, the basketball clinics resumed once a month and included fun activities for the children like pizza parties and water games. The group also donated basketballs, a scoreboard, footballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, and two soccer nets to the organization. Alex explains, “By encouraging the students to be good team players, play fair, and take losses with grace, this experience helped us appreciate the importance of CEE’s core values of respect, inclusion, caring, and honesty.” 

Fix the Beep: Dylan Foley '18 

Dylan developed the Fix the Beep program alongside A Sense of Home, which helps youth aging out of foster care establish their first homes. Fix the Beep provides fire alarm kits to individuals moving into their own housing and provides fire prevention training to families. The Community Service Award helped Dylan create 25 kits for 25 new homes; the kits include an informational pamphlet, a magnet to hang up the pamphlet with a QR code to the Fix the Beep website, a battery tester, and 9V batteries. In addition to the kits, Fix the Beep will be creating an informational video for all Sense of Home foster alumni. This fall, Dylan is developing an educational kit in English and Spanish for John Burroughs Middle School. 

Outside the Box: Jade Villapando '17 

Jade has been involved in the No Limits service club at Brentwood School for several years. When the No Limit Center’s activities for deaf children and families all moved online due to the pandemic, Jade wanted to help the children access all the supplies they may need for virtual activity groups and school, ultimately creating 50 boxes with over 20 items for each child. Some of the supplies in the boxes included crayons, pencil sharpeners, whiteboards, Play-doh, and a chalk set. Jade says that she “hopes the children have a chance to think outside of the box and be creative in and outside of school.” The highlight of the process for Jade was going to the No Limits Center to deliver the boxes, sharing that “having the kids and parents thank me and seeing them with big smiles on their faces opening the boxes was my favorite part of the whole experience.”

Oliver Berry '15, Esan Durrani '15, and Max Hahn '15 partnered with Allies for Every Child (formerly the Westside Children’s Center). The three alumni are dedicated to advocating for children at risk of neglect and abuse and hope to build a strong partnership with AEC to provide educational, health, and social services to families in need.

2018 Recipients
Pictured above

Will Toth '13 spent the summer helping kids in the community make their own guitars from scratch. Through the Making it Forward program he started in 2016, children met regularly to work on building a guitar, providing an opportunity to learn the value of making something themselves and exploring the art and science of music making.