Meet Elodie: A Summer of Purpose and Passion
A Harvard student passionate about leadership, sustainability, and social action, Elodie recently completed a summer internship with Future Foundations and is now supporting the Wellington Family Summer School.
Grateful for the connections I made, who have helped me form so many exciting ideas about the next steps I want to take in pursuing my career goals in sustainability and social action.
My Story
Hi I’m Elodie! I’m a current university student going into my 4th year at Harvard. I am back home in the UK for summer and have just finished doing an internship here at Future Foundations to continue my passions for leadership, sustainability, and social action!
The origin of my care for social action was growing up in the outdoors, frequently camping and hiking with my family. I loved nature, which inspired an interest in protecting the environment, which I explored at school at Wellington College through academics, extracurriculars, and inter-school competitions.
After leaving Wellington, I went onto Harvard, where I found so many opportunities to expand my passion for social action. I became a leader for a program called FOP (First-Year Outdoor Program), where current Harvard students take incoming first-year students on backpacking and hiking trips to introduce them to the Harvard community and inspire confidence before their first year. This was the perfect opportunity for me to combine my love for the outdoors and sustainability with my love for leadership and mentorship. I was then accepted to be on the Steering Committee for the program, where we worked to expand access to the outdoors for underrepresented communities, build an inclusive and diverse community, and foster care for the environment and sustainability.
I have found so much value from this internship, from meeting inspiring people to learning about all of the incredible youth projects, and developing my own leadership skills. A particular highlight was the Global Social Leaders Festival, where I got so much joy from talking to all of the students about their projects and aspirations for the future. I am also grateful for the connections I made with the other staff and judges at the festival, who have helped me form so many exciting ideas about the next steps I want to take in pursuing my career goals in sustainability and social action.
For the next couple of weeks I am excited to support the GSL stream of the Wellington Family Summer School and hope to continue to be involved with Future Foundations for as long as possible! 🙂
The Journey
My involvement in the Friendship Bench project and GSL Global Goals Competition has given me new skills, such as teamwork, leadership, organisation and resilience. I’ve built self-confidence, gained skills like presenting ideas clearly and found an interest for advocating for inclusivity and mental wellbeing.
Student engagement was one of the greatest issues, some people were reluctant to use the bench. We overcame this by hosting assemblies, using posters, and getting peer volunteers to demonstrate its purpose. The experience has shown that these qualities, consistency and adaptability are the key to making an impact.
The Next Chapter
I hope that in the future the Friendship Bench will not just be a short-term phenomenon in our school, but will become an integral part of our school culture, that there will be more benches in the school, and that new student volunteers will lead the initiative each year.
I urge everybody to act within their communities – even the little things can make a big difference.
My message is simple: kindness and connection matter. It is always possible to change something through the launch of a similar project or just by contacting a new person; everyone has a chance to make a difference.
