YPC’s Late Start

Where in the world has YPC been this year? Youth Philanthropy Council is a service program held by many schools, including Moeller. It starts in the first quarter and happens at 7:15am every Wednesday morning. It totals 25 gold hours for the year. This year, the first meeting didn’t happen until the third quarter on March 6th. Many people have been very confused as to what was happening and why YPC is starting so late. Paul Shaffer gives the full story.

Paul has had a significant impact on the start of YPC. Without him, it’s hard to say whether the service program would have started at all this year. “I went up to Hosmer and asked him, ‘I would like to start up YPC, how would I do that?’” Mr. Hosmer told Paul that he was having trouble picking out applicants, so Paul handpicked them, and after this he set a date for the first meeting of YPC.

Although we know why YPC was able to start at all, it’s still unknown as to why it started this late. Paul said it was a combination of it being “hard to whittle down the council” and there being a “new service director, who’s very busy.” Paul said that it was hard for Mr. Hosmer to pick applicants out since he didn’t have any experience with YPC or any past members, and setting up all these service programs is especially difficult his first year since he must start fresh in setting up each program. He helped start YPC since he believes in the cause of giving students the opportunity to make an impact in their community by funding their service ideas, with Paul himself having received grants his freshman and sophomore year.

Paul believes that YPC can still have a good impact this year, even starting as late as it is. He said that the difference is that YPC is going to move faster, work harder, and be busier. He said that “every meeting is going to be very important” from now on. YPC already has a few grant applications to get through, which is a nice start.

For future years regarding YPC, Paul said that setting it up is going to be easier for Mr. Hosmer since he’ll have more experience with the program. Paul also said that he “picked out good juniors on the board to lead next year” and that if we get the word out about YPC, we can build a good foundation for it for future years.

It’s no debate that Paul has taken leadership in YPC. He said that the reason he did so was because YPC is important to him personally. He said that he “doesn’t mean to brag, but [he] has taken lead and is running YPC” and says that it is beneficial to both the board and Mr. Hosmer, since it gives Mr. Hosmer more free time to work on other programs. He also said it is “cool to lead, but it’s a lot of work.”

While YPC starting late from a combination of having to whittle down many qualified applicants and having a new service director is quite the story, it isn’t the best one. Paul has single-handedly taken control of YPC. He hand-picked the applicants, talked with Mr. Hosmer about when to start it, and is running the meetings. And while he could have blamed YPC starting late on Mr. Hosmer, he instead looked at the situation from Mr. Hosmer’s point of view and understood that it isn’t that simple. This year, YPC only started because of Paul Shaffer. His leadership and passion for the program has enabled other students to be able to serve their community. Oh, and his second favorite color is pink.