“Why JMF?” looks different for every individual. This summer, JMF intern, Aubrey Wiest, was especially instrumental in composing Love Remains resource pieces. Take a look at her “Why JMF?”

As a college student I’m constantly busy, stressed, and overwhelmed. Sometimes it feels like the world is collapsing in on me as I juggle papers and reading assignments, social events and multiple jobs. I’m persistently being asked questions that I do not know the answer to, like why Uranus has so many moons, or the difference between a sonnet and a villanelle.

The one question, however, that I always have an answer for is “why JMF?” There’s an innumerable amount of reasons why I love JMF, and why I spent a summer interning for the Foundation. It’s because I’ve never met a more passionate and kind group of people, or a staff that I would be happy to spend literal hours of 5K prep with. It’s because I’ve always held a preconceived notion of what a nonprofit was, and what it meant to work for one, but JMF exceeded every single one of those expectations. It’s because at the end of the day I realized that I’ve never been more proud of the work I’d done.

My time at the Joseph Maley Foundation was indescribable. It was a place where I learned more about empathy and love for our fellow human beings than I ever had in my day-to-day life, or in the readings that I’d been asked to read for my literature classes.

Interning for JMF helped me grow and learn and love faster and stronger than I ever had before, and I’m eternally grateful for the opportunity that the foundation gave me. I support and love JMF because it’s a foundation that was created by and is still thriving off of the good nature and love of some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I support JMF because I believe in the inalienable integrity and value of human life. I support JMF because I believe that the world would be a much better and kinder place if there were more organizations like this one.

Post written by: Aubrey Wiest, JMF Summer 2016 Intern