Our Story

 

Each of our stories is different, but our desire to dream the impossible is the same.

 

Robbie Reese was riding the real estate wave and quickly making a name for himself in the Atlanta development community with projects all over the Southeast. Creating spaces for people to live their daily lives was a compelling career, but the thought of pursing a more meaningful path was always in the back of his mind.  Courtney Doran had just returned from teaching impoverished children through a Harvard University program on a string of atolls called the Marshall Islands, which she claims is halfway between Hawaii and Australia – we’re not so sure. She was ready for the next challenge – diabolically opposed to working in a cubical and looking for a way to impact the world.

 

In the same way, Garrett Gravesen was ready to take the next step after co-founding his first non-profit and raising $1 million dollars for children with HIV/AIDS.  Finally, Kevin Scott was working for a US congressman but was interested in placing people before politics and joining this group of dynamic dreamers.

 

It all started with an idea to create a remarkable experience, an urge to step outside of our comfort zones and do something WOW.  Never mind our current life paths or the crashing economy, it was the perfect time for us to start our non-profit and travel this improbable journey, together.  We believed that by creating a holistic experience that combined the service component of an international volunteer project, the adventure of a backpacking trip and the course credit of study abroad, we could change lives.  We decided on the harebrained ‘Field of Dreams’ model and hoped that if we built it, they would come.

 

The four of us, all friends from the University of Georgia, decided to come together and create an international service and leadership program like John F. Kennedy had done for an earlier generation—with a twist.  This program would include short-term stays overseas with a meticulously planned curriculum centered on the elements of Leadership, Education, Adventure and Diplomacy.  Our mission soon came to be known as Global LEAD, but we could only imagine what that would mean.

 

While stealing free internet at Caribou Coffee shops all over Atlanta, we planned a trip across the continent of Africa to jump start our mission and decided on a carefully crafted strategy of raising money to live out our idea.  Little did we know, this was an unproven business concept, and we missed our fundraising mark by the smallest of margins – a mere $70,000.

 

With one week remaining before our departure, we tried not to panic.  Instead, we watched “The Secret” and made a vision board.  Some of us cried, others of us laughed, but all of us still believed.  With 48 hours to go, our prayers were answered as Robbie and Garrett mortgaged their beat-up cars, life insurance policies and pride as collateral for the loan.  Was it smart? Was it crazy? Or, was it exactly what every social entrepreneur with a grand vision and great team would do?  We choose to believe door number three.

 

We lived out the Global LEAD mission for 100 days across Africa from Kenya to Cape Town.  We found out what worked, realized what didn’t and made a lifetime worth of memories along the way.  We caused a stir while speaking alongside the Prime Minister

of Kenya; got bruised and beaten while whitewater rafting on the Nile River; served in the slums of Kibera and at an AIDS orphanage in Nairobi; spoke at countless African universities, primary schools, and conferences; and even stared a 500-pound Silver Back Mountain Gorilla in the eyes in the forests of Uganda and Rwanda.   Each day was a new opportunity to serve and understand the world, each other and the organization we were creating.

 

The day before we left Cape Town, Courtney scribbled feverishly in her personal journal, “We have to make this work.  We have to get back.  I can adapt to the winds of two worlds, but I don’t know if I can get used to a cubicle. We have to make this work.”

 

Upon our return stateside, we developed a leadership and service curriculum with the University of Georgia, begged students and parents to trust in our unproven vision and lived off of our ideas alone. (For the four of us, our combined salary for the first year was $36,000 – far below the federal poverty level and dismal enough that the University of Georgia refused to include us in their average salary rankings for recent grads.)

 

We survived the first year.  Fueled by Ramen Noodles and hope, we delivered an incredible LEAD experience to 48 UGA students and one lone, brave Wake Forest student.  For the first time, people not only believed in our dreams, they had experienced our program’s passion firsthand.  They lived off a dollar a day in the townships of South Africa, listened to powerful leadership lessons from Nelson Mandela’s former cellmate and left self-doubt on the bungee jump platform – as they free fell into possibility.  Suddenly our dreams were more than just thoughts, more than mere hopes.  Others believed in Global LEAD and were inspired.

 

The second year, we again dreamed bigger than others dared as we took more than 100 students abroad to Cape Town and Greece while expanding our presence to universities all over the Southeast.

We also augmented our team by bringing on Beth Ann Schroder who quickly took our financial system from a shoe box full of invoices and #2 pencils to a fully integrated accounting system that a Fortune 500 company would be proud to use.  She also quickly learned Greek (culture) which made her the perfect candidate to lead our first ever LEAD Greece experience.

 

Joanna Harbin also joined the ranks in May of 2010 as our first hire from within, as she joined us on the inaugural program

in Cape Town. Her contagious energy, passion for people and desire to make a difference instantly contributed to the Global LEAD success story.  We were on a roll and the sky was the limit.

 

Year three was a learning experience that led to another increase in overall students and represented more universities across the nation.  Though Kevin and Garrett moved on to other pursuits, the Global LEAD team reloaded its talent vault by bringing on Carolyn Prebil as our new Marketing Director and token Midwesterner.  Though relatively new to Global LEAD, her innovative thinking, commitment to excellence and love of running has solidified her place on the team.  Charged with taking our marketing program from the stone ages into the 21st century, she will have her hands full in the months to come.

 

As we enter our 4^th year, we are decidedly excited for the next chapter in our story.  As always, we continue to believe in the power of our generation seeing and serving the world.  We believe in the possibility of what can happen when passion is combined with persistence.  In short, we believe in Global LEAD.  For as a great writer once wrote, “Never tell a young person anything is impossible, God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant of the impossible to do that very thing.”

 

 

We sure hope so.