Mark Chung ‘21, looks forward to continuing his groups efforts while at school.
This summer 25 students were accepted in the CSGC grants program. These grants are funded due to the generous support of the Cost, Earle/Mendillo and Workman families, who established endowment funds to support the community and public service endeavors of future generations of Deerfield students. For more information on these grants please visit: https://deerfield.edu/csgc/grants
Throughout this summer, I have been continuously amazed at how much a school of 600 students can accomplish, even with circumstances that limit in-person contacts. Over the past few months, we have seen members of the Deerfield community deliver letters to healthcare workers across the country, fight for social justice on campus, and raise awareness on issues like the access to healthcare and mental health. This year, more than any, has truly shown the potential we, as students, have in shaping the world around us, and I am so excited to see how this momentum grows when we return in the fall.
Shielding Our Defenders started off as a single phone call in April, where my team members and I discussed the various issues we have seen around us in our communities. Having perspectives from both within and beyond the US, we saw the gap that was preventing surpluses of PPEs in Asia from helping combat COVID-19’s spread in other parts of the globe. The bridge that we were able to draw from this conversation has allowed us to deliver over 20,000 masks to dozens of medical centers across the country– a goal we hadn’t even been able to imagine earlier in the spring.
Most recently, our group has been planning to make one of our biggest deliveries yet: a shipment for community members in New York’s 14th district in collaboration with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. With my parents running a pharmacy back home, I was able to work with them to collect and ship the 400 reusable masks. Being able to engage with this project through both online and hands-on work has truly shown me the depth of dedication my teammates have put into their work, and has made me appreciate all of the amazing initiatives that have been started by students across the country.
I would like to thank the CSGC and Deerfield for their unconditional support throughout SOD’s journey this summer. We have lots in store for the upcoming months, and look forward to bringing our work on campus!