Give & Take: Giving Back, A Way of Life
As I mark my fourth anniversary with Prosek, I can name a number of reasons why I love working here - the opportunity to work with some of the premier financial services firms, my stellar co-workers, the strong bench of senior female leaders to look up to. But one of the most powerful parts for me has been my work with Prosek’s Give Back initiative.
Giving back has always been a passion for me, so it was an easy choice for me to join and, in 2018, step up as co-head of the Give Back team.
My affection for giving back began in elementary school, when I participated in a program called Mitzvah Makers - Mitzvah being the Hebrew work for a good deed or act of kindness. Every Tuesday, a group of students would spend the afternoon at the local assisted living facility to spend quality time with the residents. We played games, listened to music, and generally tried to brighten the days of everyone in the program.
While I always left those Tuesday hang-outs feeling uplifted, I didn’t view them as “doing good” or “giving back” – it was just an activity that made me happy. I had dance class one day after school, theater another, and Mitzvah Makers was on that list of hobbies about which I felt passionate.
Finding time for extracurriculars is much harder as an adult, and I’ve found it’s easy to fall into the trap of seeing “giving back” or “volunteering” as another task to add to the list. When taking on the role of co-leading Prosek’s Give Back initiative, my personal goal was to bring this same philosophy to the program – and reignite it in myself, whether I’m mentoring a local high-school student through the three-year iMentor program, organizing a full-day blood drive at Prosek New York or attending a weekend charity walk. Contributing to the community can be a mentality, rather than a box to check, and I’m proud to be part of an initiative at Prosek that provides and shares opportunities for the whole firm to make giving back a part of their lives.
This last year has been universally challenging, and I hope – and believe – that we have all had time to reflect on ourselves as well as the experiences faced by those around us. I personally have found some much-needed brightness in my philanthropy and volunteer work during this time, both through Give Back and in my personal life, and I hope others can find that too.
As we enter giving season, and a holiday season that for many of us will look quite different (and smaller) than normal, now is the perfect time to carve out some space in our schedules for giving back.
For more information on Prosek’s Give Back initiative, please feel free to reach out to rmarin@prosek.com, and you can read our recent blogs for some ideas for giving back from home and how Prosek team members have stayed involved. 