Pencils of Promise (POP) is a non-profit organization that increases educational opportunities and builds schools for developing countries. Annie Best is the current president of Pencils of Promise at Oklahoma State. I asked her how she got involved with POP, what her responsibilities were, and what it meant to her. This was her response:
“My involvement with POP began second semester of my freshman year when I signed up to be on the email list after meeting Andrew Gray, the founder of OSU’s POP chapter, where he had a booth set up outside another benefit concert.
I went to my first meeting with about seven other people in attendance. I quickly gained excitement for the organization from the love and passion expressed by Andrew. He believed so strongly about POP and I was eager to discover why. Once I gained a better grasp on what POP was I quickly gained my own excitement for this organization. Every child deserves access to a basic education and I was ready to help make this a reality. I also selfishly saw an opportunity to get plugged into an amazing organization at its early stages on campus. I quickly found a way for me to help: planning fundraising events. Andrew was a visionary and I helped add ideas to how the event should look and feel. I helped plan and decorate for our first ever benefit concert at the coffee house back in 2012. We had a great attendance and raised our first $1000. It was from this event that the idea of Jazz Night sprang about, which was held in the following February. We raised around $4000 at this event and almost reached max capacity in the student union ballroom. It was a night of swing dancing, jazz music, and celebrating an amazing cause.
Three years later I am helping run an amazing organization with the help of a very passionate executive team. Currently we are less than a month out from our Fall Benefit Concert. This year we have a bigger and grander vision for the concert. We have shirts for sell and are moving the venue from the coffee house to Engineer South on campus.Nationally the organization, founded in 2008 by visionary Adam Braun, is making strides and has to date built over 251 schools in 4 countries.
“I am humbled to be a part of this revolution in education. I believe it is with education a foundation is set to build an extremely beautiful future for any person. I can only dream of helping lend a hand in this foundation for a child.”