12年与非政府组织创始人尼尔的对话

Three years after his graduation from 科罗拉多大学, 12岁的尼尔创立了Swimdo, a child drowning prevention nonprofit based in Bali, 印尼. 在过去的八年里, 该组织已经教授了超过7名学生,000 children water safety and survival swimming. Swimdo now employs more than 20 local coordinators and instructors, 和全国各地的游泳学校合作. 

我们和From聊了聊他在CC的经历, 泳道背后的灵感, and the skills he gained 在CC that enabled him to build a successful NGO. 

Tell me about your 科罗拉多大学 experience. 是什么吸引你来CC的?

I had always loved Colorado and had associated it with skiing and the outdoors. As a kid growing up in New York City, my family and I would take trips out west to ski. 我是在查阅当时的指导顾问给我的一本大学手册时找到CC的, and I saw that it was in Colorado and that it had this weird thing called the Block Plan.

I have always been interested in alternative learning, 这可能与我母亲在我成长过程中一直在为我寻找其他教育方式有关. 我在一所小型的私立学校上了小学和初中，然后有机会去了一所小型的专科高中. So, I always thought of myself as somebody who thrived in small groups, and the fact that most CC classes were capped at 25 students was really appealing to me. 我认为通过对话我学得最好, 事实上，这些班级都很小，这让我觉得我会得到我在其他学习环境中已经习惯的那种个人关注. 有一次我调查了街区计划, and how I would only need to focus on one class at a time, 好吧, 这对我很有吸引力，因为我从来没有像在“正常”大学环境中那样轻松地处理多任务或平衡许多不同的课程.

Is there a specific professor(s) or block class(es) that impacted you the most, 个人或专业?

当我反思我的CC经历时，肯定有一些教授对我很突出, 即, 简·希尔贝里和大卫·加德纳. Jane was my intro to poetry professor and later became my academic advisor, 她完全塑造了我对语言的看法，以及我在学术环境中表达自己的能力. 她有一种不可思议的能力，能创造一个令人难以置信的安全空间，在那里我们可以深入研究非常沉重的话题，自由安全地表达自己. 我们因脆弱而闻名, all of which was definitely not something I was used to, having grown up in the city as a wannabe-macho football player. 

David Gardener taught my Religious Poetry of Asia class and introduced me to meditation, both of which had a profound effect on the way I saw the world and myself. 到那时为止, I hadn’t considered the possibility of examining the mind outside of a scientific context. 那些诗人描述世界的方式, 他们对现实的抽象, 他们忧郁而喜剧的诗句, 真的吸引了我，让我接触到一种我之前从未遇到过的思维方式. 冥想方面的内容是在课堂之外提供的，它给我介绍了一种实践，我一直坚持到今天.

Did the Block Plan equip you with any specific skills that have benefited your career?

我想说，Block Plan在某种程度上为我的现实生活做好了准备，我不知道其他大学经历是否真的能做到这一点. 我在大学毕业后的生活中也有这种感觉, 我处理的许多项目和克服的许多障碍更像块计划，而不是一个学期或三个学期的系统. I say this because often the things in life that come up, the big challenges and careers and projects that we take on, 是强烈的, and they require an unbelievable amount of single pointed focus. 我觉得在很多方面, 在CC, I was trained to focus intensely on a single subject at a time, 思考一个特定的问题，并找到多种方法来解决它，而不需要同时处理其他不相关的问题或主题. I have always found that when I am immersed in a subject, 或者一项活动, 我的大脑适应了那种环境，并似乎下意识地想出了解决这些问题或障碍的办法.

What was your most memorable block break or outside-the-classroom learning experience?

If I had to choose one, I would probably say my field zoology course with Brian Linkhart. 我们在户外做了这些不可思议的事情. 我记得我们做过一个昆虫学项目，我们需要收集一堆昆虫，并在我们识别它们之后用它们制作一个展览. We also went on this weeklong camping trip where we were tracking elk, 检查美洲狮的粪便, 垂钓入侵鱼种, bathing in the river and all kinds of fun stuff. 我记得当时在想, 这太疯狂了, 我们要在落基山脉露营, 和一群了不起的人一起, 坐在火炉旁, 我们现在正在上课. 这是多么疯狂啊? 我们还能去哪所大学做这个呢?

告诉我更多关于泳道的事. 什么风把你吹到印尼巴厘岛来了? What was your inspiration for founding the nonprofit?

After college, I went to South Korea to teach English. I had really developed an affinity for Asia while I was in CC, and I had a friend who had recently graduated from CC and had gone there to teach. So, 我去那里教了一段时间的书，然后去了东南亚旅行，在那里我遇到了我的朋友，也是未来的联合创始人, 西莫. We ended up working together as snorkel guides in the gulf of Cambodia for a few months, 就在那时，他告诉了我他在巴厘岛的经历，那里很少有孩子会游泳. And Bali is an Island, so I was surprised to hear that.

当我回到美国时, 我调查了儿童溺水的统计数据，震惊地发现，就在一年前, 世界卫生组织已将儿童溺水确定为发展中世界儿童可预防的五大死因之一. 这真的点燃了我的热情, 我开始在纽约市一个叫做社会创新中心的非营利性孵化器和联合办公空间做志愿者. 我还开始在市中心的一个游泳池当救生员和教游泳，因为我知道如果我想做这件事，我需要一些证书. 大约一年之后, I leveraged the network I had developed at the coworking space, 我们举办了第一次募捐活动. 在那之后，我们在喀拉马斯进行了试点项目, 那是巴厘岛东海岸的一个小村庄，我的合伙人以前在那里做过志愿者. 我们开始教镇上英语学校的学生，发现所有的学生都非常渴望学习我们提供的东西，并很快学会了这些技能.

在创办和运营Swimdo的过程中，最具挑战性和最有价值的方面是什么? 

The most challenging aspect of starting Swimdo was starting Swimdo. In the beginning we were really shooting from the hip. 我不知道如何创办一个非政府组织, 如何申请成为非牟利机构, 如何组建团队, or do just about anything in the nonprofit space. 但你要自己解决，一次解决一件事. It was like the Block Plan: I had a single focus to make this program a reality, 弄清楚需要做什么，然后去做. 可以肯定的是, there were things we could have done differently, but we knew that there was a need for what we wanted to do, and there were people that we could help by making Swimdo happen, 所以这给了我们很多精力去研究和迭代，并建立了今天Swimdo的基础. 我想说，最有意义的部分是知道我们已经并将继续对学生的生活产生重大影响, 他们的社区, 还有我们当地的员工. 

It was always our goal to found an organization that was for the people, 由人民, 让当地社区有能力为当地社区服务——这就是我们所能做的. 最酷的是, other than being in the pool and getting to see our students learn, 是我们真的没有预料到的吗. 在过去的八年里, 我们目睹了这种微妙的文化和潜在的多代人的转变，我们以前的学生来找我们，告诉我们他们的父母从来没有学过游泳, 所以他们没有学会游泳, but now that they’ve been through our program and see the benefit of it, they are going to teach their children to swim. 对我来说，这真的很神奇，远远超出了我们之前的目标.

到目前为止，Swimdo已经产生了怎样的影响? What are your future goals for the organization?

年初至今, 我们教了7个以上,500 children survival swimming and water safety throughout 印尼. 我们开始教20名学生游泳，现在我们在印尼有20多名当地员工帮助实施我们的项目. 我们在印尼各地授课, 在Sumba, 在婆罗洲, 到处都是, and we just keep growing … It seems the more people that find out about us, the more communities are inviting us to come teach in their local pools and schools. 这很令人兴奋. 我们还能够简化我们的项目，这样我们就可以让一个孩子只花25美元完成我们的整个项目. 这意味着我们的预算可以更有影响力，这是非政府组织努力争取的. 

I would say the future goal for Swimdo is simple: to grow, 并能够将我们的项目提供给印度尼西亚更边缘化社区的更多儿童. 在我们开始《赌博正规的十大网站》之前，我并不知道这些, but 印尼 is the fourth most populous country in the world, 因此，目前有很多孩子无法获得任何形式的溺水预防. I would like to reach those children and protect them from drowning. 我还想建立我们的美国.S. 团队, 雇佣更多的员工, 并真正开始带来能够产生重大国际影响的资金. 在过去的八年里 we have developed a model that is streamlined, 证明有效, 创造本地工业, 而且非常有效. All we need now is more support to see our mission through. 

你还有什么要补充的吗?

当你开始做任何事情的时候, whether it be in the for-profit or for-purpose space, you always wonder if people want what you’re offering. To be where Swimdo is right now, with so much potential for impact, is really amazing. I’m so grateful to CC for paving the way for me to explore my interests, 感谢我们在印尼令人难以置信的当地团队，以及一路以来支持我们的所有人.