HYPEing Our Community

Miami’s young professionals have grown weary of hearing how lazy, entitled and indifferent we are — especially when every day we see how bureaucracy and rhetoric create a divisive nature in Congress and business leading to a perpetual state of paralysis.

Fortunately, our generation is shunning the bickering and negativity and actually starting to get things done. Two great examples of this renaissance happened recently at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus between PhilanthroFest and the Beacon Council’s New Leaders Taskforce leadership summit.

PhilanthroFest brought together thousands of South Florida residents, including many young professionals, with more than 150 local nonprofits and community organizations. It’s a volunteer-based organization, and attendance was free. Even more astounding is that it has became the nation’s largest nonprofit showcase event in only its second year of existence.

The Beacon Council’s New Leaders Taskforce also held its inaugural leadership summit on April 6 at the Wolfson Campus to complement PhilanthroFest. The mission of this summit was to tackle community issues related to talent retention and workforce development, while simultaneously providing an opportunity for young professionals to network with other like-minded individuals.

These events, among countless others, are making a profound statement: Young professionals aren’t interested in sitting around waiting to be saved by the government or upper management. We’ve seen first-hand how risky a proposition that is and, rather than complain, we’ve learned that we need to go out and make the change we want to see in the world and in our community — no matter how daunting a task it may seem.

Tip of the cap to the exceptional individuals behind PhilanthroFest and the Beacon Council’s New Leaders Taskforce; your leadership is an inspiration to us all.

Read about this young professionals article at The Miami Herald.