I never really understood Black Friday, especially with its ties to Thanksgiving. Why do we spend a day being grateful for what we have and immediately follow it with a day full of indulgence and consumerism? And every year it gets worse; Black Friday has slowly encroached on Thanksgiving itself, allowing blowout sales to disrupt one of the biggest family gatherings of the year. Thanksgiving and Black Friday don’t celebrate the same values, and it doesn’t make any sense that they are paired together. Yet we rarely question it.

Contrasting this, Giving Tuesday began four years ago as a global day of giving. With the help of social media, Giving Tuesday encourages us to give back to charities, organizations, and individuals who need it. Giving Tuesday helps us to celebrate the values of Thanksgiving rather than glorifying consumerism.

The Art of Mentoring

For the past ten weeks, I have remotely interned with Get Smart Mentoring, a nonprofit based in New Jersey. A large part of my job has been to write blogposts, such as this one, to inspire other girls and women. This new experience of mentoring has helped remind me of the amazing women who have mentored me over the years. Most importantly, a number of strong women led me on backpacking trips while I was in high school. These women never talked down to me; to them, I was almost a peer, yet I knew I could always go to them for advice when needed. I saw them as who I wanted to be when I grew older, and I definitely continue to model their behavior today. I hope that, one day, I can serve the same role in a younger woman’s life, and Get Smart has helped me to take steps in that direction.

My Get Smart Experience

My time with Get Smart has been an interesting and inspiring experience, and their existence is based largely on Giving Tuesday donations. Here are three reasons why you should give to Get Smart this Giving Tuesday:

• Get Smart takes a unique approach to mentoring. I personally knew most of my mentors growing up, but not every girl has the same opportunity. By creating a remote mentoring system, Get Smart allows any girl to have a mentor, regardless of where they are in the world.
• Get Smart brings together women from across the world. In the past ten weeks, I have met a number of women from four different countries that I would never have otherwise met. Though we may never meet in person, Get Smart takes advantage of the existing technology to connect women everywhere.
• Get Smart has helped me and other women to grow. From this internship, I have gained career skills experience writing for a nonprofit, while also having the opportunity to inspire other women. Get Smart has a range of beneficiaries, and I have been grateful to be one of them; more women deserve the opportunity to work with Get Smart!

Because of the impact that Get Smart has personally had on me and the impact I know it has on many others, I am encouraging my family and friends to take the $10 challenge! All the money goes to the costs of administering local and international mentoring programs for woman aged 10-25; everyone involved with Get Smart is an unpaid volunteer. Get Smart is a registered 501c3 public charity in the state of New Jersey, and it reaches over 1000 women each year. Please help Get Smart to continue its powerful mission!