The Internet has made travel so much easier. Not only can you fully research all of your options, but you can use sites like Expedia and Airbnb to find affordable places to stay all over the world. Additionally, you have social networks like Facebook that allow you to stay connected with friends who might have a spare bedroom or couch in a city that you’re visiting. Before all of these options, there were hostels. Hostelling International USA is the Silver Spring, MD based American affiliate of Hostelling International, and they’re “a non-profit membership organization that has been serving young travelers for 79 years strong.” They have a network of more than 50 locations that each offer “a unique and local stay experience” with “inexpensive, safe, clean and fun accommodations.”
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One of my cooler life experiences was being picked up by a friend after landing at the airport in El Salvador. Instead of driving to the airport, he flew there. We hopped in his plane and took a tour of the country at a few thousand feet. Then we landed at another airport and drove to his house (it was almost as long a drive as it would have been from the original airport). While most of think of people who “have a plane” as billionaires with private jets, the reality is that a lot of normal people have and fly plaines. That’s why the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has hundreds of thousands of members. It’s a Frederick, MD based non-profit that “is the largest, most influential general aviation association in the world.” The organization acts as a “beacon for those who cherish the freedom to fly.”
There are a few kids who I knew growing up that ended up playing professional sports. For one it was destiny. His dad was a pretty good MLB player whose cousins played in the NFL. Despite the pedigree and signing an NFL contract, I don’t think my friend ever got in a game. Another kid (with a crazy intense dad who got banned from coaching in at least one local league) played a few years of minor league baseball. However, the most successful pro athlete that I knew growing up was a kid who I never would have expected to make it. He never struck me as super athletic, but he ended up being extremely good at lacrosse. In fact, he has already won a Major League Lacrosse Championship and made an All Star Team. It may not be one of the four major sports leagues, but it’s a serious league with serious growth potential (lacrosse keeps getting more popular). While the league is headquartered in Brighton, MA, it has teams in Boston, MA; Charlotte, NC; Annapolis, MD; Denver, CO; Hamilton, ON; Hempstead, NY; Columbus, OH; and Rochester, NY.
As I’ve spent more time with the annual Inc. 5000 lists, I’ve noticed quite a few trends. Some carry on from year to year (companies that land government contracts grow really fast), while others are more fleeting. One trend that is continuing to gain strength is the growth in the advertising industry-especially for companies that focus on data and optimization. Videology is a perfect example. They’re a Baltimore, MD based company that has developed “a video advertising technology that works across all video screens to connect brands with those consumers they most want to reach” (“all screens” is definitely a buzzword/trend now). This platform has led the company to #136 on the Inc. list with 2,727% three-year growth and $137.5 million in revenue. Four-digit growth is so much more impressive when it leads eight and nine-digit revenue.
One of my favorite episodes of The Office is when Michael Scott tells his employees to pack a swimsuit for a leadership training trip, and then takes them on a “booze cruise” on Lake Wallenpaupack in January. The staff are obviously pissed at Michael, but for the most part end up having a good time. I’ve been on a few evening cruises, and I’ve always had a great time. I guess that is why Entertainment Cruises is doing so well. They’re a company with “26 vessels serving eight cities with six unique cruise products.” Entertainment Cruises’ offerings range from fine dining and dancing to speedboat tours, with a lot in between. They currently operate fleets in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Washington DC.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve run out of football related non-profits to write about. For past Super Bowls I’ve covered the National Football Foundation, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, USA Football, and even the NFL (which is technically a non-profit). I’ve even taken the advertising angle with Common Sense Media and the Advertising Research Foundation. (We also covered World Vision which gives away the loser’s championship gear to developing countries.) So even though football is on my mind, we’re going to go in a completely different direction. When I was in college my parents and sister decided to replace me with a basketball (not football or American football) playing Italian exchange student who came through AFS. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. Youth For Understanding USA is a Bethesda, MD based non-profit foreign exchange organization similar to AFS that is “committed to preparing young people for their responsibilities and opportunities in a changing, interdependent world.”
When you’re in school, you get a distorted view of what principals do. You see them deal with troublesome students and institute new rules, so you kind of assume that discipline is their main role. As you get older you realize that the job goes much deeper. They’re the CEOs for their schools. They have to manager a team of teachers, work with school boards, communicate with parents, and much more. A good school is often the product of good administrators, which is why a non-profit called New Leaders “develops transformational school leaders and designs effective leadership policies and practices for school systems across the country.” The organization is based in New York, NY and also has locations in 12 urban areas.
Now that the election is over, we know where the country stands on choosing a leader. But it’s still not all that clear what the collective wants on individual issues. There’s no doubt that polls guide policy, and that’s why the 2012 NORC Election Survey is important. It “was designed to measure public opinion about important issues the country faces – economic recovery, health care costs, and extreme partisanship,” and it is based on data collected both before and after the election. The survey is conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago (also known as the National Opinion Research Center), which is a Chicago, IL based non-profit organization that aims to “to conduct high-quality social science research in the public interest.” The organization was founded in 1941, and it has done research on a wide range of topics including Children and Youth, Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Energy, Environment, Health, Human Development, International Development, Poverty, Security, Special Populations, Substance Abuse, and Sustainability.
Happy new iPhone day! I’m like a kid on Christmas any day Apple has a keynote event. Some people may think that an announcement about the latest and greatest phone is trivial, but one analyst at J.P. Morgan seems to think that the iPhone 5 “could potentially add between 1/4 to 1/2%-point to fourth quarter annualized GDP growth.” I think that the impact could be more than that if the rumors about the iPhone 5 are true. Word is that they’re changing the size/shape and the dock connector. Anyone who buys the iPhone 5 will have to buy all new accessories too. That’s good news for a company like M-Edge, which is an Odenton, MD based company that “sells fashionable, protective cases for e-readers, tablets, and cell phones.” They came it at #91 on the Inc. 500 by riding Apple and Amazon’s wave to 3,185% three-year growth and $37.2 million in revenue.
I’ve mentioned before that if you want to see me act like a hungry, tired five year old, just take me furniture shopping. I’ve only been banned from one furniture store, but that was nearly 20 years ago, and I’m sure the picture of me taped to the cash register no longer looks like me. Now I know why a lot of stores have treats available for kids (usually the sugar high hits by the time the family is gone). One store that I actually kind of like is Design Within Reach. The spaces are usually pretty small compared to other furniture stores, and they have really unique stuff. Design Within Reach is headquartered in Stamford, CT, but they have stores all across the country (and most of their internships are in stores). I always thought the “within reach” part of the name meant affordable, but stuff at Design Within Reach is pretty expensive (though they’re much lower than a lot of other places). Apparently “within reach” means “authentic modern design” that is “not found elsewhere” and is “in stock.” That last one is a big deal. There’s nothing more frustrating than plunking down a huge amount of money only to hear that your couch will arrive in 3-9 months.
Today is my -1 year anniversary. In other words I’m getting married a year from today (and yes, we’re celebrating that). Amy and I have a wedding planner, and we’ve already made a lot of the big decisions (when/where/band/photographer). In a city like Chicago, you’re not going to get what you want if you don’t book things way in advance. Luckily, we have someone to guide us on these decisions, but if we didn’t we might turn to a resource like WeddingWire. It’s “the category leader in local business reviews (think “Yelp of Weddings”), offering the ability to search, compare and book over 200,000 recently reviewed wedding vendors.” The company is based in Bethesda, MD, and because they’ve been so successful in the wedding market, they’ve also gone after Bar Mitzvahs, Proms, and all kinds of other events.
After mentioning high school yesterday, I had a high school exam dream last night. It was a history test, and oddly enough I think I performed pretty well (though I woke up before I got a grade). If it was a Physics test, I think it might have been more of a nightmare. As much as I enjoyed AP Physics, it was definitely one of the hardest courses that I took at any level. That probably explains why I’m not a member of the American Institute of Physics, which is a College Park, MD based non-profit membership organization that promotes “the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics and its application to human welfare.” The group was founded in 1931 by “a group of American physical science societies joined forces to create an institute that would strengthen their response to the practical and philosophical uncertainties facing their field.”
I was really lucky in that my parents sent me to a top notch private school for 6th through 12th grade. I have no doubt that it had a significantly positive effect on my education. Why? Because it was a truly great school. Private schools obviously aren’t the only great schools (and plenty of private schools aren’t all that great), but there’s no doubt that many of our country’s public schools are underperforming. 50CAN is a New York, NY based non-profit organization that is pushing for education reform because they believe that “Great Schools Can Change Everything.” They don’t just mean test scores and individual outcomes. They mean our economy, our democracy, our dreams, our competitiveness, our health, our communities, and pretty much everything else. 50CAN is different from many of the education focused non-profits that you’re likely familiar with in that 50CAN is focused squarely on advocacy.
One of the most amazing things about the United States is our National Park system (check out National Park Service jobs)–it really shows off how vast and how diverse the country’s natural beauty is. While you’ve probably visited at least one National Park and know of many more, chances are that you’ve never heard of National Marine Sanctuaries. NOAA manages the system of sanctuaries “to conserve, protect, and enhance their biodiversity, ecological integrity and cultural legacy.” The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is a Silver Spring, MD based non-profit organization that “was created to assist the federally managed National Marine Sanctuary Program with education and outreach programs designed to preserve, protect and promote meaningful opportunities for public interaction with the nation’s marine sanctuaries.”
Amy and I are going to the International Kennel Club of Chicago Dog Show today. We’re not thinking about getting a dog yet, but we’re thinking about thinking about it. Since dogs are on my mind today, I figured I’d look for an animal friendly non-profit. You’d be hard pressed to find an organization more animal friendly than The Humane Society of the United States. They are “the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization” with support from more than 11 million people in the U.S. Their national headquarters is based in Washington, DC, but you’re probably familiar with local humane societies. While the local societies are not directly connected with The Humane Society of the United States, they do get support from it.
For the most part illness is an individual problem. You get sick, you go to a doctor if it’s serious enough, and it eventually gets better with or without treatment. But sometimes your illness can be a public health issue. If you get something like influenza or food poisoning, there’s a good chance that information about your illness could help lots of other people stay healthy. At times like these “when new health risks emerge or well-known problems re-emerge, it is public health laboratories that analyze the threat and provide the answers needed to mount an effective response.” The Association of Public Health Laboratories is a non-profit organization based in Silver Spring, MD that “works to strengthen laboratories serving the public’s health in the US and globally.” The organization’s membership spans across all kinds of laboratories ranging from the public health labs mentioned in their name to environmental and agricultural labs. Many are government labs, but there are also corporate and non-profit labs included.
I went to small, private middle and high school. They were really big on outdoor education, so almost every year we took some kind of class trip to promote bonding and a kind of learning that can’t be done in the classroom. The trips were wonderful–even when 20 of us got lost in the woods with one teacher overnight. I was lucky to get these kind of experiences through my school, but if I hadn’t, there’s a good chance I would have done something like Outward Bound. They are “a non-profit educational organization and expedition school that serves people of all ages and backgrounds through active learning expeditions that inspire character development, self-discovery and service both in and out of the classroom.” Outward Bound is headquartered in Golden, CO (but operating across the country), and “was founded in 1941 in the tumultuous waters of the North Sea during World War II, to provide young sailors with the experiences and skills necessary to survive at sea.” They got their start in their current state in 1961.
One of my favorite classes at Cornell was Animal Science 290, which was better known as “Meat Science” or “Meats.” We did pretty much everything including slaughtering, butchering, curing, cooking, and eating, but, even better, we learned all about the scientific reasons for why we were doing what we did. Everything about the class was great (especially the eating), but one of the unexpected benefits was getting to interact with an entirely different group of students than I was accustomed to. A lot of the kids in the class actually grew up on real, working farms, and I don’t think that I had ever met anyone my age who grew up on a farm before Cornell. They were the kind of kids I assumed did 4-H in high school. It turns out that my view of 4-H was a bit narrow, as it’s much more than an organization for farm kids–it’s a non-profit that “empowers youth to reach their full potential, working and learning in partnership with caring adults” in all environments. 4-H is based in Chevy Chase, MD, and it’s pretty clear from their website that they’re trying to build an image that goes beyond agriculture. Still, 4-H is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture and works through the Cooperative Extension of “America’s 109 land-grant universities,” so agriculture remains extremely important within the organization.
A lot of people overlook the importance of state and local governments. They get all excited about federal elections, but overlook the elections that are closer to home. I’m sure there are a lot of reasons for this, but I’d generally like to start seeing states taking back some power from Washington (though the thought of the State of Illinois having more power scares me to no end). Anyway, states have a huge advantage in governing in that they have 49 peers (more if you include territories, foreign provinces, etc.) who are dealing with similar issues. State governments can work together, share ideas, and benefit from each other’s experiences. A lot of that is done through the Council of State Governments, which is a nonpartisan non-profit organization that “fosters the exchange of insights and ideas to help state officials shape public policy.” They’re headquartered in Lexington, KY (with multiple other offices), and they work in all three branches of state governments.
I started playing the drums in 5th grade. I started with a snare drum, but soon after I got a drum set that filled my entire bedroom. At about the same time I started taking private lessons, and I had a teacher who seem like the coolest guy in the world to my 11 year old self. After taking the summer off from lessons, I came back to my first lesson to find a new teacher sitting in the drum room. I was heartbroken. I never liked the new teacher, and my excitement for playing the drums never returned. I could have been a rockstar if only I had taken my lessons at Bach to Rock. They are “the Music School for students of all ages.” They’re based in Bethesda, MD, and they have a growing number of locations across Maryland and Virginia. They’re also an Inc 5000 company that has seen an even 1,000% growth in their revenue over the past three years.
Everything that I learned about DNA I learned from the O.J. Simpson trial and Jurassic Park. That’s not entirely true, but it’s scarily close. DNA analysis seemed so futuristic back then, but now it’s an everyday type thing. Still, there continues to be a ton of innovation in the world of molecular DNA diagnostics, and one of the leaders is OpGen, which used to be headquartered in Madison, WI, but is now located in Gaithersburg, MD. OpGen’s business is based on “a unique and powerful Optical Mapping Technology that rapidly generates high-resolution, ordered, whole genome restriction maps from single DNA molecules.” I’d explain that to you if I could, but I think you’re better off reading OpGen’s explanation of Optical Mapping.
A few days ago I saw a retweet from Peter Gammons’ account about some job opportunities. That seemed a bit odd to me since Peter Gammons is a baseball reporter and analyst, and the jobs didn’t seem to have anything to do with baseball. I made a note of it and went back to what I was doing. Today I went to check out 38 Studios, and I realized that Gammons was retweeting Curt Schilling, the former Phillies and Diamondbacks pitcher (he may have also played for the evil Red Sox, which is probably why Gammons, the biggest Red Sox homer ever, was retweeting him). Anyway, Curt Schilling is the founder of 38 Studios, which is “an entertainment and IP creation company in development on a broad range of products, including online and console video games, toys, novels, comics, film, TV, and other forms of digital media.” I’m not sure how I’d describe the stuff that they’re putting out, but if I had to pick one word it would be fantasy. Like I said, nothing to do with baseball. 38 Studios was previously based in Boston, MA, but they’re in the process of moving to Providence, RI, and that’s where most of their jobs are now.
It’s been a while since we took a look at a full-fledge PR firm (we’ve covered a ton in the past, check our public relations and communications tags). It’s not that they don’t offer great internship opportunities, it’s just that they’re kind of boring to write about. As an outsider it’s hard for me to tell what makes one PR firm better than the other—I usually focus on clients lists, but even that’s not enough. You really need to dig deep and do some serious research to get a read on a PR firm. You’re probably wondering what about Chicago, IL (with offices across the world) based Golin Harris made them stand out to me. Well, someone I follow tweeted about the company’s jobs, and then I saw that they were named 2010 “Large PR Agency of the Year” by PRWeek. They were also a 2009 Holmes Report “Best Agency to Work For,” and that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to honors and awards.
I know that a lot of you are buried under feet of snow and not excited to hear about my vacation in the sunshine, but you’re going to have to deal with it today. This is the 6th consecutive New Year’s Eve that I’ve spent in Aruba, and every year it’s celebrated with lots and lots of fireworks. Unless you’ve been here for New Year’s Eve, there is no way that you can understand the amount of fireworks that people shoot off. I heard somewhere that the average Arubian spends 10-15% of their annual income on fireworks. It’s ridiculous. There are big shows put on by hotels and resorts, and there are backyard shows. From sundown until the early morning, the sky will be filled with pyrotechnics, which is why we’re going to look at the Bethesda, MD based American Pyrotechnics Association. They were founded in 1948 as “premier trade association of the fireworks industry.”
If thinking about your future career is stressing you out, there’s also a chance that you’re feeling disillusioned about all of the time, effort, and money that you’ve invested in your college education. Now, a college education (even if it’s from a top school) doesn’t guarantee an internship or job, but it’s still amazingly valuable. It’s no secret that a college degree usually leads to “higher employment rates, higher job status, and earn higher wages.” For many of you, college was a given, but there are plenty of students who don’t come from a “college-bound culture.” They live in underserved communities or come from families where college is not a foregone conclusion. Bethesda, MD based Center for Student Opportunity is a non-profit organization that empowers “underserved, first-generation college students to and through college by providing critical information, guidance, scholarships, and ongoing support.”