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Previous | Next Shawn Henry '08 A student-initiated nonprofit positively influences hundreds of inner-city young people Few people can be described equally as genteel and fierce, but Shawn Henry lives up to both descriptions. The mild-mannered GMC junior is well known for grabbing an idea or project he believes in and pushing relentlessly to see it succeed. This is perhaps why, at the age of 20, he has founded a nationally recognized nonprofit organization and was invited to the last presidential inauguration where he met the President and First Family. A business management major from Brooklyn, NY, Shawn is a native of Jamaica who emigrated to the U.S. in 1995. At the time, he spoke what he describes as "broken English" but his hard work and perseverance pushed him beyond his seventh grade reading level to a very successful high school career. During this time of his life, Shawn picked up Paul Fleischman's Seed Folks, which detailed the fictional story of a group of people who work together to transform a vacant lot into a community garden. He was inspired by the notion of creating natural beauty from urban ugliness and turned his ideas into reality in 2002 by organizing a non-profit youth organization named "Garden Angels." Initially, Shawn dreamed of bringing life back to the community by sprucing up run-down, drug-infested parks, or as he puts it, "dumping grounds" around the city. As the program took root, however, it grew to include an after school program with activities such as movies, poetry readings, and even a chess club for youths in the area. Shawn had launched an organization that would influence hundreds of teens within his community and that was to receive the grand prize at the Fleet Youth Entrepreneur Competition in 2004. In that same year, Shawn received the Prudential Spirit of Community Award for his work in the program and was also honored in 2005, when he was invited to be an honoree at the presidential inauguration's "America's Future Rocks Today." Though Garden Angels has become a highly successful organization, Shawn is not completely satisfied with the size of it. "It was so frustrating because there were so many kids who wanted to join," he said. Shawn plans on returning to Brooklyn after graduating from Green Mountain College to continue his work with this organization and make it grow. "I want to build a community service center where young people can gather, and have it be a positive presence in the community," he said. When asked about any other possible future plans, Shawn laughs. "I could become a farmer," he said, "you never know what could happen; it's a crazy world." |
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