By Dagmar Bjork
SAN DIEGO – I recently joined Girls Give Back, a program of Jewish Family Service, to participate in its “Making Money, Making Change” summer session. This was my first time in the program, and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I learned so many important skills – not only for business ventures, but for social and academic enrichment too. The program provided me the opportunity to meet other Jewish teenage girls in my community and make new friends, while also visiting the San Diego State campus and other locations for lectures and meetings on starting a business.
In the workshop, we learned how to become entrepreneurs while giving back to the community. There were speakers who taught us about important aspects of starting a business and giving back to the community, such as marketing, finance, management and sales techniques. In the process of learning these vital skills, we structured and created a small social venture business called, “Saved by Sweets.” We created a business plan to bake and sell brownies and donate one hundred percent of the proceeds to Project S.A.R.A.H., a domestic violence education, prevention, and support program of Jewish Family Service.
“Making Money, Making Change” involved daily tasks, educational opportunities, and group collaboration, and each day we learned something new. We baked over 350 brownies at Congregation Ohr Shalom in the Uptown area of San Diego and performed fundraising and networking in our private and social areas during spare time. In addition, we appeared on KUSI News to discuss the program and promote our travelling “pop up” boutique to sell our product. We had the opportunity to sell our brownies around the community, at locations such as the Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Service, Hera Hub and Seacrest Village. In total, we raised $956.40 for Project S.A.R.A.H.!
The most important thing I learned during the week was managing finances, specifically how to make money, how to invest it, and how to save the money I earn in my professional life. I found this to be the most valuable lesson learned because no matter what you do in life, you always will need to be able to manage your income. I plan on using these tools for college and when I start paying for my rent, a car and food. This course gave me the opportunity to start being wiser with my money and taught me easy ways to start saving for important goals I want out of life. I have now started to grow my savings thanks to the lessons learned from this program.
Girls Give Back is a very valuable program. I learned so much in only one week about starting a business and giving back to my community and new ways to help others. After this program, I look at things in a different way about how I can help my community more each day. I now plan to start a new business with the tools I have learned from Girls Give Back and will be able to help my community through my business in the near future. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this enriching program.
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Dagmar Bjork is a teenage philanthropist and model from La Jolla, who continues to give back to community and humanity as a whole though philanthropic outreach, fashion charities, and donates 5% of her earnings to the charities she supports. Visit her at http://about.me/dagmarbjork for more details. Girls Give Back, a program of Jewish Family Service, engages girls in fun, positive leadership and team-building activities and gives girls the opportunity to explore the community through hands-on service learning and advocacy projects. To learn about the Fall Session of Making Money, Making Change and other sessions, please visit www.jfssd.org/ggb