Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Pencils For Progress. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Pencils For Progress, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?
From personal experiences in classrooms, we have eye witnessed the lack of educational resources and tools provided to teachers. We have personal connections with many of our favorite current and past teachers, and we think all of them can agree that there has always been an insufficient supply of learning materials to classrooms. This is detrimental to students’ and teachers’ success throughout the school year because students aren’t able to get the best out of their educational experience, and teachers are forced to go purchase the school supplies that are lacking using their own paycheck. We recently encountered a situation where there weren’t enough headphones to go around the room, so students had to watch a video and then pass the few headphones around the room to the rest of the class. Small issues like these lead to inefficiently used class time throughout the day, and this can negatively affect a student’s growth.
Even with the supplies that are stocked within classrooms, often times these materials have been used for so long that they are worn out, or function improperly. For example, many of the glue sticks used in elementary schools have completely worn out due to how much the kids use them. The pencils inside many teachers classrooms are minimal in itself, and often unsharpened due to how much they are used. Even gym equipment like dodgeballs, basketballs, hula hoops, and other things often have holes and are torn, bent, or broken.
We want resources like these to be easily accessible for teachers and students in our community and beyond. By providing these resources through our nonprofit, we are taking the step to prepare students for a more fulfilling life that’s ahead of them. In return, faculty members are able to spend less of their own money on necessary resources, and that burden can be lifted through our organization. We want to make a difference, and giving what is needed within our community is what we want to change about the educational system.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Pencils For Progress is a nonprofit organization entirely initiated and led by students! Myself (Max Roberts), Winslow Ly, and Lorelai Farrell are the 3 core team members, and we work hard to provide the necessary resources for students and teachers to thrive. We began our nonprofit August of 2023, the beginning of our freshmen year, because we have seen firsthand the effects that a lack of resources can have on students and teachers. Inefficiencies in the classroom often stem from the absence of needed materials, and we wanted to make a change.
Our organization mitigates these challenges by directly working with faculty leaders from different schools to see what is needed, and to coordinate drop off dates to physically be there to meet and provide the materials to the school in person. This really sets us apart from other organizations like us. Doing this, we are able to make a personal connection with the school, its faculty, and its students, we can ensure the delivery of supplies was fulfilled, and it allows the students to see the youth in action, hopefully inspiring young minds to take action themselves. So far our organization has supported 4900+ students, 300+ staff members, and 5 schools! We’ve even raised over $2,300 dollars, and donated thousands of supplies!
Pencils For Progress provides any sort of classroom materials! Items donated in the past include things like crayons, pencils, headphones, Lysol wipes, board games, Play-Doh, folders, journals, pens, and so much more. We are so very proud of how far we have come with P4P, and we cannot wait to continue our journey of filling both backpacks and hearts every school year. The last thing I’d like to leave you with is that our organization is easily accessible and excited to work with you to supply you or your school with the resources it needs! If you want to reach out to us, visit our website at pencilsforprogress.org, or check out our Instagram and Facebook!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Winslow, Lorelai, and myself have gone to school together since the first grade. We have all been very close friends, and strive for success both in the classroom and in our extracurricular activities. We have always been innovative thinkers, seeking ways to create something new or solve problems, and I think this is what ultimately led us to create Pencils For Progress itself. Over the summer and fall of 2023, we all became much better friends as a group, and hung out a lot! The bond we shared then and today helped us become great friends, and business partners. Winslow and I initially founded Pencils For Progress, and we began to form the idea and blueprints of the organization. By adding Lorelai as a partner, we were able to finally get ourselves on our feet, and we began to make progress. The three of us, or as we call ourselves; “The Trio,” have worked hard to make our nonprofit what it is today, and we love getting to help our community and uplift the educational experience for both teachers and students.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We have worked a lot on making our social media both visually and educationally appealing. We want our viewers and community to see the effort we put into making our posts both captivating and impactful. We update our social medias continuously with posts and stories about our events, fundraisers, progress, achievements, facts, quotes, and news! By doing this almost daily we are able to reach more viewers and spread our story to the public, which in turn helps our organization receive more followers, donors, and donation opportunities! We love to post about our community, and do our best to include the teachers and students we have met throughout our journey as Pencils For Progress in our posts.
Some advice I would have for anyone trying to build a platform on social media would include the following:
Define your internet presence. Do you want to appear cheerful, bright, serious, etc. Figure out what you want your impression to consist of. Be sure to upload posts and videos daily, because this is the best way for social media apps to recognize you and get your posts on people’s feed. Be prepared for viewing droughts, this happens a lot, and there’s not much you can do about it, so don’t be discouraged. If you grind it out, it will pay out in the long run. lastly, keep your audience updated on what you are doing with your business/organization. Make sure to include real photos of your work, because it makes your account feel more impactful to viewers. Keep working towards posting as much quality media as you can, and make your online space feel like a community in itself!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pencilsforprogress.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pencils_for_progress?igsh=MXFqdnh3bGUzb3ZmdQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550072758005&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: https://linktr.ee/pencilsforprogress http://gofund.me/15a24787
Image Credits
Lucero Saldaña