Among Green Hope’s hundreds of clubs and organizations is Emilee Yoo (‘25) and Sonya Shah’s (‘24) chapter of Letters for Rose. Letters for Rose is a national organization that writes letters and creates different forms of artwork to give to senior citizens.
Letters for Rose was founded by high school volunteers, and currently has 400 chapters around the world. Green Hope Letters For Rose drops off unique rounds of letters that contain kind messages and different forms of artwork to local retirement homes around the Triangle. The Green Hope chapter donates their creations to Glenaire and Templeton, amongst other local senior citizen homes.
The club meets once a month in Room 304 and in each meeting, club members create letters- a round of letters are due at each meeting. The Green Hope chapter boasts a group of 30 dedicated students, and has been a consistent addition to the Green Hope community for many consecutive years.
Though Yoo and Shah did not start the chapter of Letters For Rose at Green Hope, they are the proud leaders and great thinkers behind the club. Through their efforts, are always looking for ways to expand their impact within the senior community.
When asked about the broader impact of their club, Yoo hopes that Letters For Rose connects student leaders with the elderly community. “I know Green Hope community has a lot of talented writers and artists, and it’s exciting to see them apply their talents beyond an academic setting, and towards an initiative that allows them to apply their creativity and make an impact on a group of people,” she said, highlighting the fact that many students lack interaction with people from diverse backgrounds. “A lot of the time, we overlook senior citizens, and forget that they often do not have people to surround themselves and connect with. It feels nice to do something special for them.”
This past November, Letters for Rose partnered with Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), allowing DECA members to write and send out a round of letters. The collaboration facilitated the creation of over 200 letters from both groups.
Yoo and Shah look forward to creating new collaborations amongst different groups in the Green Hope community through Letters for Rose. For Valentine’s day, Letters For Rose collaborated with Art Club, bringing together many talented students to make Valentine themed cards and artwork. The organization hopes to create many more rounds of letters and continue to impact the lives of senior citizens around the Triangle.
From losses to successes, investing has always been an important part of an adult’s life. One could say that investing is similar to gambling as the outcome of the investment, decided by “luck.”
However, investing is unlike gambling: unlike most gambling games, the outcomes of investments can be predicted using research. Many people fail to realize this while making the first investments and simply choose a random stock. The Green Hope investing club focuses on fixing this mindset.
Jai Saxena (‘24), president of the Green Hope Investing Club, reiterated this idea, explaining that he made the club to “empower others with basic investing skills to use and become financially successful and literate”. The Green Hope Investing Club started as an idea created by Saxena inspired by his middle school experience with financing and business.
Saxena explained his interest in the field. “[I] was always interested in Finance and Business since Middle School and was involved in other business, finance, [and] economics clubs, competitions, and extracurricular activities.”
He added that he was not alone in his endeavors. He is grateful for the help from “some senior friends whom I [Saxena] worked with for some time now on competitions and other related activities.” Saxena describes how he would, “rely on them to help run the club and then put some tasks on some younger board members who are passionate about finance and want to build more experience.”
To join, one just needs to go to any meeting and join the canvas set up by the club. After joining, the student will attend club meetings and also be able to compete in competitions. They will also be notified about national investing competition opportunities.
With a bright future ahead, the investing club plans on reaching new heights by inviting guest speakers to discuss topics and strategies to help provide internships.
