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Welcome to the latest edition of the StudPro Snapshot! In this issue, you'll meet our amazing volunteer Shreyasee, find the latest on our Serving Smiles and Familes4Familes initiatives, get updates on virtual link-ups all around the world, and more! If you’d like to submit a highlight, send an email to bethany.bogacki@operationsmile.org.
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STUDENT PROGRAMS PLANS & PROJECTS
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Stepping Up to the Plate: Since our Serving Smiles initiative kicked off in April, student volunteers in nine states across the U.S. have provided more than 4,300 meals to hospital workers in their communities — and that's just in one country! Our student volunteers also made it possible for us to provide break-room essentials to three hospitals in Panama as well as pizzas for first responders in Paraguay.
Thank you, Buca di Beppo! We're so grateful for the support of U.S.-based chain restaurant Buca di Beppo, which in June helped us deliver 400 meals to hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York, Florida and Texas!
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Meals with Meaning: In Virginia, we've taken Serving Smiles to the next level: Together with leaders from churches and elementary schools, and thanks to our partners AidNow and Families4Families, we've provided meal kits to almost 200 families across Hampton Roads, Virginia. As each kit is packaged to feed a family of four for a week, we're proud to say this amounts to more than 10,000 meals — and counting. This effort will continue through August.
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Fueling Families: When our university student team in Paraguay helped us with our Serving Smiles initiative, they were hungry to do even more. Together with our care center in Paraguay, a dynamic duo of undergrads set up a meal kit program for our patients and their families — ultimately giving away more than 80 kits!
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All Smiles:
We want to thank everyone who joined us for our #StayAtHomeWithASmile campaign! It was great fun to bring our global family together for daily activities, all curated by student teams from the U.S., Germany, Italy, Vietnam and Egypt! No need for FOMO — we've archived all three months' worth of activities here in our #StayAtHomeWithASmile blog. Pro tip: these could be helpful for club meetings in the future, especially our friend An's DIY speaker, pictured here!
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Love And Learning: The civil unrest, pain and trauma in the United States stems from racism that is a daily reality for all too many. Operation Smile was built on love, empathy and compassion for people all around the world, regardless of the color of their skin. If love is making someone else's problem your problem, then love must continue to be our call to action. We are called to be open-minded, to listen, to understand and to stand against the destructive impact of racism. We are dedicated to continuing to do the work.
One of the ways that we're doing that is by sharing information about people we're learning from, antiracism resources, and relevant organizations. We're all called to show love in this world. We are still learning, and we welcome this action within our community.
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LAC U-Lead: More than 500 students from across Latin America came together for an all-virtual weekend conference via Instagram Live. “We don't have you pass a test to prove you care,” Operation Smile Co-Founder Dr. Bill Magee said to the students as he and his wife and fellow co-founder, Kathy, kicked off the U-Lead. The students also heard inspiring stories from Operation Smile medical volunteers, who discussed both their specialities and the special experience that is volunteering for this organization.
Virginia: Rallied together by student volunteer Jordan Griffith, high schoolers from Northern Virginia took their next step with Operation Smile and took part in the region's first virtual U-Lead. Everyone was honored and thankful to hear from two very important perspectives: Daniel, a classmate born with a cleft, who shared his story and discussed having surgery and attending speech therapy, as well as Mr. Daras, a local teacher whose daughter was also born with a cleft.
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Michigan: In another virtual U-Lead conference, 30 student attendees from two clubs learned from two longtime Operation Smile medical mission volunteers, Dr. Steven Naum and Cathy Snyders. Steven shared his experience as a surgeon and his work in the surgical training program in Rwanda. Cathy is a speech and language pathologist who spoke in detail about a cleft's impact on speech and her role on a medical mission.
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United States: The new representatives of our regional and national leadership councils gathered together to begin planning for the year's slate of activities across the United States.
Our regional leadership councils are comprised of more than 70 high schoolers from the following states: New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Washington, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Kentucky.
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Summer of Service: From making sock puppets to writing get-well cards, check out our revamped page of service projects you can take on to support Operation Smile this summer (and every season). Don't forget to reach out to your Student Programs associate and see how they can help!
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TOP SHOT
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More than words: University student Shreyasee serves as a translator during Operation Smile's medical missions in her town of Durgapur, India. Thanks to her help, deep bonds are built between patients and volunteers.
"When I saw the number of people who came with Operation Smile, I was flooded with emotions — I felt so good! I felt like there are a lot of good people left in this world, and this is the example."
(Photo by U-Voicer Nicholas Nottage)
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ISLC SCHOLARSHIP FUND
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Investing in the Next Generation
In every edition, we share the story of a student whose ISLC attendance helped them advance their studies and moved them closer to their goals. Today we introduce you to Alicia and ask that you consider contributing to our ISLC Scholarship Fund. You can help pave the way for students from 12 low- or middle-income countries to attend our next global gathering of students.
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From fundraising with her dad to starting a club at her high school, Alicia's heart has long been invested in the cause. It's what spurred Alicia to get even more involved with Operation Smile and attend its 2018 International Student Leadership Conference (ISLC) in Seattle, Washington. She left her home of Toronto, Canada, to go to a leadership conference far away with no one she knew.
Reflecting on her ISLC experience, Alicia said she remembers every moment. For her, the best part of the experience is meeting people from around the world and learning what their lives are like back home.
“Right now I feel like I have a friend in like every country,” Alicia said with a laugh.
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ADVOCATES IN ACTION
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New Jersey: The team from Saddle River Day School made us smile with their digital group photo from a recent club meeting.
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NOTE: In this roundup, many activities took place before social distancing, quarantine and other measures were broadly in place.
Florida: St. Mark's Episcopal School held a family service night where they made get well cards, finger puppets and blankets. They also held a supply drive the week leading up to the event and collected donations for smile bags.
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Florida: Two club members from Gator Run Elementary spent a weekend hosting a lemonade stand at a local park and raised money for Operation Smile. Meanwhile, our club at Belen Jesuit Prep School held a club meeting and crafted cards for our foundation in Venezuela.
Nevada: You could say kindness is right up their alley: The club at Clark High School hosted a successful bowling fundraiser.
Texas: Texas A&M International University Operation Smile student club, in partnership with the Pre-Dental Society, held its first 5K fundraiser.
Georgia: Kindness abounds from the state: The club at Alpharetta High School received a $500 donation from LexisNexis, and our club at Chattahoochee High School created get well cards in different languages.
Massachusetts: They may be new to the organization, but they've been busy! The Franklin High School club made blankets for patients during a club meeting.
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Kentucky: Assumption High School held a fundraiser to raffle off tickets to a Lumineers concert and raised $416.08 for Operation Smile. They also handed out little hearts with positive affirmations on them to students in their school.
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Maryland: The Catholic High School of Baltimore Club created get well cards for patients, teamed up with the National Honor Society to collect child life supplies and made more than 30 sock puppets for speech pathologists to use during medical missions.
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New Jersey: Morris Catholic's Smile Week has left us all with a grin on our faces: They held a fundraiser at Panera Bread, sold T-shirts and even organized a baby-photo trivia game, where people had to guess who was who by their baby photos.
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Canada: Students from the University of Saskatchewan hosted a fundraising booth in a campaign called Change for a Change at the SaskTel Centre during the Saskatchewan RUSH lacrosse game and fundraised more than $300! Canadian students also participated in a country-wide campaign on Canada's national cupcake day, selling cupcakes in their schools to raise money for our cause.
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Ecuador: University student volunteers prepared and sold little bottles of hand sanitizer, netting $100 in donations for Operation Smile.
Venezuela: Students made banners that included motivational phrases to decorate the clinic and left messages of encouragement for the children, their parents and the foundation's volunteers.
Nicaragua: Saint Augustine Preparatory School translated storybooks from English into Spanish so patients could read them at the center. Lincoln International Academy and UAM hosted an event in the care center where 30 patients attended and made different activities.
Dominican Republic: The junior class of Saint Thomas School sold brownies and cookies as part of a fundraiser, and they donated an equivalent of $100 to Operation Smile.
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STUDENT PROGRAMS IN THE NEWS
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Operation Smile Student Programs
3641 Faculty Boulevard
Virginia Beach, VA. 23453
1-888-OPSMILE
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