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The Herbert E. Kaplan Youth in Philanthropy Scholarship

Adam NeupauerAdam Neupauer is an exceptional role model for his generation. He is President of his high school's National Honor Society, tutors students in science and has been in the jazz band, marching band and orchestra. Adam also plays golf and has been a varsity team member for the last three years, currently co-captain of the team.  

Adam also finds the time to give back to his community contributing over 1000 hours in his high school years alone. He is an active member of theYouth Group at St. Luke's Episcopal Church and serves as the Head Acolyte. In 2004, Adam and the group decided to plan a missionary trip to the El Pedregal area in the Dominican Republic to help build a school. The group raised money for over 3 years, selling homemade pizzas, conducting bake sales, car washes and lawn cleanups. Twenty youths traveled to the Dominican Republic in February 2007 for one week of work. They were taken aback by their living conditions; however, they admired the children’s strength, positive disposition and work ethic. Additionally, Adam and the group helped build new trenches for cultivating bananas, tutored the children in English and played sports with the children. Many friendships were forged and the week passed swiftly.

Soon after his return, Adam decided he wanted the group to return to El Pedregal and quickly cemented a plan. This time, it wouldn't be funded by the church: under Adam's guidance and direction, the group wrote a multi-tiered business plan for "Project Reunite" which included pizza sales, a solicitation campaign to the corporate community, a letter-writing campaign to family and friends, website creation, and fall yard clean-ups.  Adam alone contributed over 300 hours of service to the effort.  He and his youth group raised $12,000 ($2,000 over goal!) and returned to Dominican Republic in 2008 to continue their important missionary work.

Adam expressed this life-changing experience by saying: “It was heart warming for us to know we had made new friends and we helped in every possible way to improve their living conditions.”

Last summer, Adam was chosen as a 2008 Bank of America Student Leader. He worked as an intern and counselor for underprivileged youth at The Boys and Girls Clubs in Providence. Adam shadowed managers and staff for 8 weeks, expanding his knowledge in non-profit operational management and community leadership. Additionally, he spent one week attending a leadership summit with 224 other student leaders in Washington, DC. Adam became so interested in the topic of local and global capacity building that he wrote his senior paper on the subject. A tireless community supporter, Adam has also volunteered at the RI Community Food Bank, soup kitchens, Hasbro Children's Hospital, the East Greenwich Welfare Department, Crossroads RI and the Junior League of Rhode Island.

Adam is the son of Jeff and Susan Neupauer of East Greenwich, RI. He is a senior at East Greenwich High School and plans to major in international business after graduation.

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