At the age of 19, Jennifer Fink has found a passion that led to writing a book, and even starting a non-profit, all while being a regular student at Maryland.
In high school, Fink went through a long time period in and out of bed rest, sick and frustrated with no diagnosis from doctors. She took this frustration and decided to devote her time to give back to others and ease their pain. As a high school senior, she took up a one-credit internship class as an intern for the American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces at the National Naval Medical Center (military hospital and base).
Here, Fink was part of the Red Cross Medivac team meeting the newly wounded soldiers as they arrived on the Tarmac and helped them and their families during the entirety of their stay at the hospital. From daily patient visits to the Wounded Warrior and ICU inpatients to helping relieve mothers from watching their children for a few hours, Fink attempted to ease these service members and their families’ stay as much as possible. What started as an internship soon turned into a 6 hour a day, 6 day a week job where Fink devoted her heart to a cause that she truly felt a passion for.
After Fink’s volunteerism with American Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces, Comin’ Home, and Operation Homefront, she went to college where she was a regular civilian devoted simply to her education and life in College Park. She wanted to find a way to continue her passion for helping those in the military. This past summer, together with her co-founder, Fink began to create the soon to be Operation BRATS: Bringing Responsible Assistance to Service Members.
The goal of her organization is to engage college students and civilian communities to give back to military service members and their families who do so much for our country. Hopefully within the next year, Operation BRATS will be a full up and running non- profit that will provide military service members and their families with babysitting, pet sitting and tutoring services. After a series of training sessions, college students learn to better understand military life and could bridge the gap between military and civilian worlds.
Under the same initiative to give back, Fink wrote a book called Little Brats, which is soon to be published. Together with her mother, she co-authored a book that is a therapy tool for military children and for civilian students to understand military life.
Fink stands out in our Maryland community with her devotion to give back and provide comfort to the military and their families. The love and care she has for this cause is extraordinary, something very unique and admirable for a regular college student like us.