Meet Febin Bellamy, one of Georgetown’s best and brightest seniors and the founder of Unsung Heroes. Febin believes, “Our goal is to not only share the stories of our unsung heroes, but also to use our platform to help them achieve their dreams.”
The Basics
Name: Febin Bellamy
School & Year: Georgetown McDonough School of Business Class of 2017
Major: Business Management
Activities On Campus: Unsung Heroes Founder, Georgetown’s Campus Representative for the Clinton Initiative, Business Undergraduates Invested in Leadership Development (BUILD) Coordinator
Former Activities: Peer Ambassador for the MSB, Student Consultant for Development Solutions Organization (DSO), Georgetown Storyteller for the Office of Communications
How is Oneil Batchelor doing?
Before, we just shared his story. Now, everything has taken off. Oneil has been doing catering events all over campus (Georgetown Men’s Lacrosse, StartUp Hoyas, Black Student Alliance to name a few). People love his chicken – no matter where you are or where you come from, people just love his chicken. He has done stuff with the Facebook company in D.C. This summer, we are planning on pushing Oneil and working with him to expand his business.
Are there any updates with Larry Calloway?
Larry got picked up by Music Crowns and his video got shared. We’ve talked to some news outlets; he just wants to share his dream. We aren’t just getting money for unsung heroes; we are helping workers achieve their dreams. We are identifying those that go above and beyond the call of duty to making campus a better place and helping them. We are encouraging people to be more productive and share their dreams and interact with students.
What are the plans for Unsung Heroes moving forward?
We are figuring out a system of narrowing down heroes. Before, it was just recommendations. An alumni commented on a Facebook post and started an idea. The Corp reached out to help Oneil. A junior student reached out for Frankie and figured out through the Hoya that her dream was to go to Florida.
We also want to get the administration involved; we aren’t a labor activism group. We want to help workers feel part of the community and work with students, administration, and alumni to get nominations to pull in people. Administrators love that Unsung Heroes are getting requests all the time and want to get more involved.
We also want to expand and get to 30 schools by the fall. In order to really grow and make a movement, we have to become more structured. We are already a non-profit so we have to get together a team, moving forward. In the future, maybe we can create Unsung Heroes for companies, which is how we can monetize this in the long run. We have a long way to go and we’re excited to see where it goes.
Did you face any challenges this semester?
The key is controlling the growth. But I want to keep it about the mission – it’s about helping the workers. What is our role in the community? Is it for advocacy? The bigger we got, the more we faced. We just exploded last semester. What is your purpose of the goal? Unsung Heroes is about dreams and helping workers achieve the American Dream. Anyone who has a dream, with a passion behind it, we want to help. This is a hard goal, but we want to at least identify some of this. Our mission is to promote and get people to think differently, whether it’s 3 or 100 people.
What are the plans for this summer?
We are taking a few months off from sharing stories, going back to the drawing board, and recouping. We have to invest in people and technology to manage the growth. I want to make Unsung Heroes more of a community involvement. We also are revamping the website and taking more recommendations from students. Keeping Georgetown at the center of all this is important. We want to keep the headquarters at home and expand to Jesuit schools with students who are “men and women for others,” a mission that touches many alumni.
How has Unsung Heroes changed your Georgetown experience?
I think about things more broadly. Rather than asking myself what I am going to do tomorrow, I ask what am I going to do in ten to fifteen years? I can see the potential. The more momentum we’ve gotten, the more I see in it. First, this was a hobby, then it was a class project. I never thought it would be this big this quickly. Originally, I was going to go into consulting, but now I want to see this all the way through. How many more people can we impact?
How do you handle any criticism?
People ask me when I’m going to get a job. I just brush it off and take negativity as fuel to improve. We take feedback very seriously and stay focused on the goal. Are we getting people closer to the goal? Recognizing the heroes? Unifying the community? We want to create a culture where it’s not weird to talk to a janitor; we are all under one umbrella in one community.
How do you feel about graduating this year?
I’m excited for the next chapter, to graduate. It’s bittersweet, but I’m not going too far away. I’m eager to see what’s in store. I’m going to miss a lot of people. It’s exciting to see what everyone else does too we’ll see. I keep in touch with a lot of friends already and I plan to continue that. I’m staying in D.C. this summer and I plan on applying to the Halcyon Incubator. I’m also working in the area, trying to get an office for Unsung Heroes, and hiring interns. Right now, Unsung Heroes is in 5 schools: Georgetown, Notre Dame, UNC Chapel Hill, UMD College Park, and Washington University in St. Louis. I want to build Unsung Heroes for the next 10 to 15 years, maybe expand it internationally to places like Oxford, Cambridge, Turkey, and the U.K. Another option is high schools – the superintendent of all the public schools in Boston wants to bring this on a high school level.
Do you have any advice for underclassmen?
Pursue your passions. It sounds so cliche. I thought I had to fit a mold, especially when I transferred to Georgetown. Be yourself, pursue what you care about. Do what you love, put all you have into it, and you’ll see that things will just start opening up to you. That can be tough sometimes, but just take time for yourself. We’re so focused on the next 3 years of our lives, but think about the next 10, 20, 30 years. You have the rest of your life to work, and you never know where it will take you. From a senior perspective, I can start to see what’s next and think big picture. It’s tough because that’s all you know, but look at older students who can help guide you. The journey is long. And if it doesn’t work out, just move on to the next thing. It’s the same thing with Unsung Heroes; who is being impacted? Getting people to think and see the message and be more aware of the community – hearing and acting on it.
There’s a lot of expectations. We are all successful students, so focus on what makes you happy. Getting that A will make you happy, but spend time to walk around campus and embrace the little stuff that we take for granted. It’s about our friends; don’t rush your experience here and don’t think back and regret anything. Enjoy it more and do more things for yourself. Everything works out for a reason. Do things you want to do.