Nikolas Karamanis ’22

UCLA Health Sound Body Sound Mind, Los Angeles, CA

UCLA Health Sound Body Sound Mind (UHSBS) provided me the incredible opportunity to gain knowledge in the day-day operations of philanthropic work, and simultaneously pursue my passion for fitness and healthy living. UHSBS raises funds to provide underfunded schools with fitness equipment, programming, and the tools to live a more active, healthier lifestyle. I joined the foundation at a significant transition point in the company’s history. Since its founding twenty years ago, the main objective of the non-profit was expansion, securing the funding to impact as many kids as possible. They have been quite successful during this time frame reaching 151 schools and mentoring over 170,000 students. However, UHSBS has been stretched too thin, lacking the human resources to impact 151 schools substantially. This has led the organization to switch gears from a quantity to quality objective with a new target of making a more meaningful impact with fewer schools.

Sound Body Sound Mind has three main facets for which they conduct their operations; they include, fundraising and accounts, data analysis and programming, and marketing and communications.

Probably the coolest project I was able to work on was a marketing-related effort focused on the founder of UHSBS Bill Simon ’73 and a Ted Talk he delivered at UCLA on the importance of physical education in public schools. I assisted the head of marketing in a social media outreach program, designing the captions and hashtags for Instagram and Twitter, as well as writing the email explanation that was sent out to current and possible future donors. Bill had set a goal of reaching 1,500 views on YouTube. One of my fondest memories from the summer was the buzz of excitement and energy in the office when we reached that goal in the first 24 hours. Currently, the video sits at over 7,000 views.

Bill and I complete a workout at the world-famous Venice Golds Gym wearing UCLA Sound Body Sound Mind mantra, Break a Sweat Change a Life.

This project also directly highlighted my biggest take away from my summer internship, and that was the importance of rhetoric in non-profit work, but really any organization in general. Ideas that started in my first brainstorming session were continually polished and reworded, circling the office to make sure we were delivering a powerful message in the most concise way possible. This was something my first year at Williams unknowingly prepared me quite well for. I have spent many hours of college career meticulously pouring over one or two sentences of literature, being challenged to find the more profound message woven throughout. At the time, I struggled to find the importance of such assignments as I could not imagine how this would transfer to any sort of real-world situation. This summer’s internship experience has certainly alerted that viewpoint significantly.

The second department I had the opportunity to work with was data analysis and programming. I think initially I was most excited for this kind of work as my economics and statistics classes have resonated quite well with me so far at Williams. My main project in this department was sifting through past and present data searching for marketable numbers that could be given to the communications department and in turn, would be presented to potential donors. It was interesting because I was certainly familiar with results and profits driving income in the for-profit world, but it was almost exactly the same in the non-profit world. Being able to have statistics that show significant improvement in students’ lives drives more donations.

Probably the two most shocking statistic that I was able to find was that from one of the middle schools Sound Body Sound Mind worked with; 65% of students aged 11-14 reported drinking one or more soft drinks every day. While 34% reported skipping breakfast 2+ times per week, both of these nutrition statistics really blew my mind and also bothered me. Being an athlete pretty much my entire life, I know that poor eating habits can quickly offset any fitness progress made by exercise. I asked if the organization has any nutrition programing in place to try and make a difference in the eating habits of kids, and although there was some programming, it was minimal and was solely dependent on the teacher enforcing the program. This is part of the reason why the organization is decreasing in size and trying to enact more meaningful change across the kids they work with.

The opportunity to work for a non-profit whose goal is to empower kids through a physical activity could not have been a more perfect match for me. For as long as I could remember, physical activity has been a staple in my life. Gym class was always the bright spot of my day, and I could relate to the notion that physical fitness improves your classroom performance. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we had many rainy days that limited the amount of time we could spend outside. My mood would be noticeably different on the days I was unable to be active. This is why this experience was so powerful to me because I genuinely believed in the message and the work that Bill and his team are doing. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to work alongside them.

The impact of this internship experience on my professional development and personal growth will be nothing short of incredible. I had the opportunity to put into practice the critical thinking and reasoning skills that Williams trains so well. I feel like my internship experience not only further cemented these skills but also grounded them, giving me a real-world lens to look through my future academic work.

The last thing I was able to gain from this internship was first-hand experience of the power of the Williams network at work. During my internship, I was able to connect with numerous Williams alums who were incredibly insightful and more than happy to share their story. This made me feel proud to be a part of the Williams community and so excited to be an Eph. So, I have to say thank you to Ms. Burleigh and the ’68 Center for Career Exploration for making this program the fantastic experience it is.