11. Founders

Brandis Anderson

Brandis Anderson is a sophomore at Stanford University majoring in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics and minoring in Economics. Serving as Student Body Vice-President and National Honor Society president at her high school in Friendswood, Texas, she was involved in and led many community service activities. She also had a great deal of leadership experience as the captain of Varsity Cross Country, Track, and Soccer. Additionally, while in high school she participated in PALs where she served as a mentor to at-risk youth. Since attending Stanford she has becoming actively involved in two community service organizations: STEP OUT, an organization which allows underprivileged children to participate in dance performances, and TEAM, a group that mentors children through sports, arts and crafts, and games. She is also active in various political organizations including Stanford In Government (SIG) and NAACP and is both an Advising Associate to the Class of 2004 and a campus tour guide. During Summer 2001, she will be working on the Peninsula Community Foundation Neighborhood Improvement Initiative in East Palo Alto, CA. In her spare time, she enjoys running and listening to music. Her career goal is to become either a civil rights litigator or a political lobbyist in D.C. fighting for social justice.

Susan Bobulsky

Susan is a sophomore at Stanford University majoring in Science, Technology and Society with a focus in Biological Sciences. Her particular interests are in the ways that the introduction of new technology shapes our social perspectives. As a student at Geneva High School in Geneva, Ohio, she first became involved in helping the community as a member of a county YOUth LEADERship program. Later, her involvements ranged from serving as a member of the United Way Allocations Committee, to assisting the leader of a local branch of Toastmasters International, to stage managing productions at a community children's theater. Her strengths as a part of a business team are derived from her experience as a clerk in a law firm. In her spare time, she teaches an SAT prep course for disadvantaged students in East Palo Alto and enjoys performing with the Ram's Head Theatrical Society. She is also a member of the Omega Chapter of Delta Delta Delta, whose major philanthropy activities benefit children with cancer. Her career goals include working as a lawyer or a policy maker in the field of Biotechnology and Ethics.

Sabrina Bornstein

Sabrina Bornstein is a sophomore at Stanford University majoring in Urban Studies with a Community Organization focus and a minor in Art History with an Architecture focus. While a student at The Head-Royce School in Oakland, California, she founded and ran the Human Rights Club, was recognized for her work with the Red Cross and was Co-Captain of the varsity soccer team for three years. Outside of school, she started with a friend, an art program for children of single mothers at a homeless shelter in Berkeley as well as volunteered at the Oakland Children's Hospital. While at Stanford, her studies have focused on service, policy, and government with a focus in urban poverty. She has also spent much of her time, through the Ethics in Society Honors Program, exploring the ethical dilemmas that exist in such fields. She is currently working at Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a regional planning non-profit in San Jose. She looks forward to spending next fall in Montpellier, France through the International Partnership for Service-Learning. Regarding her future, she hopes to one day be involved in non-profit work, policy, or law.

Christie Brawner

Christie is a sophomore majoring in the Community Organization track of Stanford's Program on Urban Studies. She attended high school in Medford, Oregon and was involved in community service through student government, and the Key Club. Her leadership experience includes serving on the board of her high school's Key Club, being a camp counselor for the siblings of children who have cancer, and working at a residence shelter for troubled youth. At Stanford, she has been involved in Night Outreach, an outreach program that fosters communication between Stanford and the homeless of Palo Alto, and spent time tutoring a young girl through EPATT - East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring. She also enjoys music and art, and spending time outdoors. In the future she hopes to so social work in Latin America, and continue to practice innovation in bringing change through nonprofit and community service work.

Lindsey Cox

Lindsey is a sophomore majoring in Human Biology and Urban Studies, with a focus on Community Organization, at Stanford University. She attended high school in Elk Grove, California, where she was active in Student Government, secretary of the Future Farmers of America (FFA), captain of the swim team, and a Mock Trial pre-trial attorney. Her community involvement includes volunteer tutoring for limited English-speaking elementary students, mentoring to junior high students, facilitating a third-grade field day for her high school's agriculture program, organizing the Adopt-a-Family Christmas program for FFA, and serving as a volunteer counselor for Camp Barnabas--a Christian camp for disabled children. Her business experience includes a self-employed sheep business, raising sheep for breeding and market purposes for seven years. She was also a clerical and computer assistant for the Flight Light airport lighting company. This summer she is excited to serve as a fellow for the California Main Street agency headquartered in Sacramento. In college, she has been involved in the Cornerstone Christian organization, leading weekly Bible studies for 4th and 6th grade girls. She served as her freshman dorm social chair. Through her writing class, she co-authored an annual brochure for the Youth and Family Assistance service program. She was a member of the Kids with Dreams community service organization and participated in their Social Entrepreneurship conference. In the future, she hopes to work with California communities in orchestrating proper land-use planning techniques.

Anne Diaz

Anne Diaz is a sophomore majoring in Urban Studies with a concentration in Community Organization. She grew up in San Diego, and attended Mount Carmel high school, the largest public school in San Diego county. In high school Anne taught English as a Second Language to first and second grade students, led a catechism class for sixth and seventh graders through her Catholic church, and volunteered occasionally at St. Vincent de Paul's soup kitchen. She was also a member of the National Honor Society, a National Merit Finalist, and a National Hispanic scholar. Since coming to Stanford, she has continued to happily overextend herself. This year Anne has been involved in LEAD (a collaboration between the ethnic centers), singing in a new a capella group, serving as co-editor for the Quad (yearbook), interning with the Law Review articles department, and lately, learning bhangra to dance in the upcoming Mela show. While during freshman year her activities were more service oriented, an internship at First Book, a national non-profit in Washington D.C., and recent classes on the ethics of public service have caused her to think more deeply about her actions in community service, and realize that many of the "service" positions she took up last year were not grounded in the knowledge necessary to really make a difference. In order to remedy this, this summer she is doing educational research at UCSD and research for the San Diego children's museum. She will be studying in Guadalajara in the fall through the International Partnership for Service Learning, and in the future hopes to work in the non-profit sector.

Anna-Christina Douglas

Anna-Christina is a sophomore majoring in Product Design with a minor in Symbolic Systems at Stanford. Beginning at Stuyvesant High School in New York City, she became involved in service work through InterAct Community Service Club, Arista National Honor Society, and the New York Road Runner's Club. Her high school leadership experience includes art direction for theatrical productions and three years on the Varsity Track Team as well as work on Ruth Messinger's 1997 mayoral campaign. At Stanford, she is a photographer and photo-editor for The Stanford Daily newspaper and a member of STAN, the Student Alumni Network. She also works as an Advising Associate, working with a team of mentors for freshman academic advising and organizes the annual Viennese Ball. Her work with the Gabrieli Neuropsychology lab at Stanford on working memory has been published and presented at neuropsych conferences. In her spare time, she enjoys photography and horsemanship. Her goals for the future are to receive her Masters in Design and work to create more socially-responsible products.

Laura Feldman

Laura is a sophomore majoring in Urban Studies at Stanford University with a Community Organization focus. For four years in Wilmette, IL, she led volunteer groups that worked weekly with children in Chicago and served on a high school social service board. For her senior project, she worked with high school dropouts that were taking classes in order to pass the GED's. At Stanford, she has interned at two community foundations: Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley working on neighborhood improvement projects in San Jose and East Palo Alto. She was involved in community organizing activities, program evaluation, and wrote grant reports and job descriptions. She also volunteered with SAT Success, a group that teaches disadvantaged students SAT skills, as well as Ravenswood Reads, a literacy program in East Palo Alto. She is also the student coordinator for YAPS, Young Alums in Public Service. At Stanford she has also been involved in Hillel and dance. Next year, she will be studying abroad in Buenos Aires for 6 months.

Joshua House

Josh is a sophomore majoring in Public Policy at Stanford, with a concentration in Urban and Regional Policy. In high school in Austin, Texas, Josh was very active in service activities, including tutoring disadvantaged youths and serving as the National Honor Society's Vice-President. Josh has had a great deal of leadership experience, including being named captain of both the varsity baseball and basketball teams his senior year, as well as serving on the student council and as President of the Spanish club. While at Stanford, Josh has had the opportunity to work at an e-commerce start-up in the direct marketing department, and is familiar with what type of environment it takes to foster the sort of creativity and passion necessary to make a new venture work. Other work experience includes summer jobs working as an assistant manager at a marina, and interning at an advertising firm. Josh's career goal is to practice law, and he is most interested in constitutional law. He one day hopes to move into politics, perhaps serving as a U.S. Representative from his home district in Texas.

Amanda Kahn

Amanda is a sophomore at Stanford majoring in Political Science with a concentration in American Politics. She is particularly interested in urban development and how the public and private sectors can cooperate to improve the nation's cities. As a high school student in Philadelphia, she became involved in community-service activities that provided her with a first-hand look at the shortcomings of the urban experience including homeless outreaches, Habitat for Humanity, and various mentoring programs. This past spring she traveled with a group of students to learn about different examples of social entrepreneurs who are using business skills to tackle difficult social issues. As an intern in an e-commerce start-up, she gained a lot of business experience which she hopes to apply this summer as an Urban Summer Fellow working for the Philadelphia City Council on its new Blight Initiative. At Stanford, she has been involved in the Stanford Debate Society, the Student Organizing Committee for the Arts, and the Social Entrepreneurship student group. Next year she will participate in the Stanford in Washington program and then will travel to India, South Africa, and Brazil to study international urban development.

Ryan Schleis

Ryan is a sophomore at Stanford University majoring in Urban Studies with a focus in Urban Planning and a minor in Sociology. Ryan attended high school in Green Bay, WI where he was involved in numerous activities including theater, newspaper, community service, and the multi-cultural club. His high school leadership experience includes president of the Forensics team for two years and editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. While at Stanford, Ryan has had leadership positions during Admit Weekend, serving as Head House Host for his freshman dorm, and New Student Orientation, as head of a group of student volunteers. Ryan spent his last summer as an intern at On Broadway, Inc., a National Main Street Program in his hometown, where he learned a great deal about what it takes to launch a successful neighborhood revitalization effort. His duties at On Broadway included working on a shared parking initiative and preparing a property's initial application for listing on the State Historical Registry. Ryan looks forward to spending the upcoming academic year in Berlin studying and interning at an urban studies related organization. Ryan is interested in how the built environment influences community formation and one's social integration. He hopes to apply these principles to a future career in urban redevelopment.

Patricia Soung

Patricia is a senior graduating with a degree in Interdisciplinary Humanities with a concentration in Philosophy and the Arts, and will be completing her honors thesis on modern Chinese architecture and urbanization. She has been involved with Alternative Spring Break (ASB), a student-led service learning organization, as a participant on the Asian American Issues Trip and the Homelessness in LA Trip, a leader of the Homelessness and Poverty in the Bay Area Trip, and, currently, as an ASB coordinator. This year, she is also President of Night Outreach, a street outreach program to the local homeless and low-income population, and Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Street Forum, a newspaper publication dedicated to homelessness and poverty issues that now reaches a readership exceeding 8000. Patricia also works in a lab on Alzheimer's Disease. Next year, she will be working for a foundation through the Tom Ford Fellowship in Philanthropy. She then hopes to spend a year in China working for a human rights organization and strengthening her Mandarin speaking skills. Patricia will eventually return to school in preparation for a career in medicine or law.

Caroline Tsay

Caroline is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science at Stanford University. She attended Leland High School in San Jose, California and was involved in many community service and leadership activities. Her community service experience includes working with the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital, Second Harvest Food Bank, Goodwill, the Giving Tree, Sacred Heard Community Service, and other organizations. She was president of the California Scholarship Federation, a lifetime member of the National Honor Society, state qualifier in Oratorical Interpretation for speech and debate, and chairmen of various positions in student body government. Her business and technical experience comes from her summer job as an intern developer at a start-up subsidized by Adecco, SA, the largest staffing company in the world. She is excited to work this summer at the Intel campus in Santa Clara as a marketing and programming intern in the Intel Developer Services department. At Stanford, she is involved in Project EXCELL, a program that teaches basic programming to at-risk high school students who will be the first in their family to attend college. She also tutors for math and physics at the Women's Center on campus. She obtained a #38 Northern California Tennis Association ranking in 1999, and in her spare time she enjoys practicing and playing. She hopes to work in the computer industry after she graduates and obtain a career in business.

Cathy Wu

Cathy is a sophomore at Stanford majoring in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Mathematics. She has had some experience in the corporate environment during her two-summer internship at Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital group in New Brunswick, NJ. Besides organizing information from investment companies into various databases, she took on the responsibility of hiring a replacement for herself at the end of the summer, which required advertising, setting up and conducting preliminary interviews, and devising a screening task which tested candidates' ability to handle unfamiliar software and calculate financial indicators. At her high school in Lawrenceville, NJ, she served as the Global Perspectives Editor for the weekly high school newspaper. At Stanford, she spends a lot of her free time playing wing and scrum half for the Stanford Women's Rugby team. This summer, she hopes to volunteer at Habitat For Humanity and/or pursue her interest in the field of architecture.