The journey begins...

Hi everyone! :) My name is Mark Lim, and I have recently wrapped up a year as a College Access Advisor with the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative in, you guessed it, Cincinnati. I love the city! But, this September, I have chosen to go on a new path by accepting a Student Development Manager position with Imagine Scholar in the Nkomazi, South Africa, with a focus on English Writing and Reading. I am hoping to help all 30+ students of the Imagine Academy develop their passions, while honing my own, and learning a lot from each other about school, the world, and ourselves. I am lucky enough to be working with some of the region's most unbelievably dedicated and inspiring high schoolers, striving for excellence through tons of hard work and mutual support. Plus, we're starting next month off right, with a whole unit just on spoken word poetry. I get to watch these students open their minds with eloquent rhymes, all of the times. I'm pretty excited!

Currently, I'm back home in New York, but preparing to head to Cincinnati for 3 last weeks. Over the last year, it has become the city that I embrace like a home...I am beyond lucky(!) and very grateful to have found the best people to call housemates, friends, and more. :) Those who know me may be aware that my girlfriend and inspiration, Lauren, made it to Africa last month doing HER dream job starting a brand new school for girls, a role that was a LIFETIME in the making. Looking back, it has been worth the months of uncertainty and agony to get to this remarkable point!

If you're here, you may be interested in helping this cause for the next generation of our world's dreamers and leaders. There are many ways to help out. The most obvious is a donation, here: www.crowdrise.com/marklim/fundraiser/marklim1. We are also looking for old iPods and laptops to give the students--if you have any laying around, let me know at mark@imaginescholar.org, I'd be happy to accept them! Or, you can see what is on the reading wishlist for these voracious readers here (950 pages per month is required to stay in the program!): www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/2Y7T5KY8AD2G6/ref=cm_sw_su_w.

Thanks for poking around here, and for each and every contribution. I look forward to blogging again soon!