The winners of the Reynolds scholarship will be announced soon. We had a post a few weeks ago on most of the Reynolds finalists, listing their ideas briefly. While all their ideas were great (and I don’t doubt their dedication), only a few stood out to me. Here are four finalists whose projects I found interesting, and hopefully you do too. Details after the jump.

Tommy Head, Stern ‘11
At 20, Tommy Head has done much more than most people his age. He’s the founder of Childhood Cancer Society, a non-profit organization that pays the various bills of families with kids who have cancer or blood disorders. His inspiration? He was diagnosed with ITP, an autoimmune disease, at the age of seven. Now he seeks to help children in similar situations with his organization.

He got the idea for the organization shortly after the tsunami hit in late 2005. He realized he wanted to help, but decided to focus on something familiar, something “close to my heart,” as he puts it. Now running three years strong, the organization has already helped dozens of affected families. He continues to run the day-today operations with the help of his family and a board of directors. This, in addition to his Stern workload, has made Head a very busy person.

He believes that the people involved with the Reynolds program would help him “be able to make some changes in the world, especially in the world of children with cancer.” If you wish to help him out, the organization sells on its website teddy bears wearing the charity slogan – “Kids are beary special.” – for $15.

Shane Crary-Ross, Silver ’11

Shane currently has two ideas in the works. The first, Sustainable Silver, is the Silver School of Social Works’ green initiative. It has three main focuses: operational sustainability, academic sustainability, and getting students involved. Crary-Ross and those involved with the initiative want to lessen their school’s environmental impact as much as possible. However, it’s her second idea that I find the most interesting.

It’s called the Green Canteen, an experiment designed to show local businesses and the school’s dining halls that going green is a sustainable business model. The Green Canteen will start in the fall, with a table set up in the lobby of Gallatin. The plan is to sell soups and rice dishes five days a week, using products from local farmers and other green places. Crary-Ross hopes that the Green Canteen will show businesses that the risk and cost involved with going green is minimal and will allow them to remain competitive. The positive environmental impact is the desired result.

She plans on recruiting students from the Food Studies program to cook the food, citing her lack of culinary skills. Be sure to check it out once the fall semester rolls around.

Genesis Briggs, Tisch ‘11

Briggs has been an independent artist since she was thirteen years old and has released three albums. Now at NYU, she is working on her new “baby project:” The Children’s Album, a hip-hop album she hopes will be used as an education tool to start conversations in classrooms about social issues like teenage pregnancy, teen drug use, and religious and racial tolerance. It’s not your typical hip-hop album; no cussing will be allowed (She doesn’t cuss herself), and all the songs will be sung/rapped by children. “I want to develop a product that parents can be proud to listen to with their kids,” she said.

How does she plan on distributing the album? Through her own company: Open Sky Artworks. The company is not limited to just music, however. Briggs hopes to sign many independent artists of all types. Poets, musicians, composers, performers, painters and writers can all have a place at Open Sky.

She got a lot of her ideas for songs from homeless people because they have “been through a lot” and because a lot of them are “crazy.” “When you speak with crazy people,” she said, “you know, it opens up your mind.” She does acknowledge that it can be dangerous, so advises to “make sure it’s daylight.” Check out some of her music here.

Amanda Raposo, Silver ’11

She went into the School of Social Work because she wanted to do some good. Well, after a semester of volunteering at First STEP (Services to Empower Parents) at Bellevue Hospital, Rapposo became frustrated with the impossibility of helping a group of women with whom she felt a connection: teen mothers. Personal circumstances of these young women prevented them from pursuing services that Raposo was able to provide, and they still had many other needs that couldn’t be met, like supportive housing. Her experiences “brought to my attention how deep the social issue was,” she said, “that there was definitely something that needed to be changed. She found a kindred soul in Reynolds scholar Jessica Mason, whom she met at a Christmas party. From their conversation emerged the idea of Baby’s First Home.

Baby’s First Home is a residential program for homeless teen mothers and their children, specifically mothers who have aged out of foster care (ages 17 to 21). When it opens, it will be the only long-term housing program of its kind in the five boroughs of NYC. With help of her dad, a real estate broker, the organization was able to get a building in Almherst, Queens for the program.

Peer mentoring, she says, is a major part of their program. They want to establish connections with NYU and Columbia, hoping that there will be a dialog between both sides, and also to raise awareness of the issue. You can help out by volunteering, donating goods or money, or just showing them your support. Just check out their website.