New Years Update Letter January 7, 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR! “Boola Boola”  and Happy New Year! 1Hello!My first semester of college is officially finished! I survived shopping period (choosing classes), endured weekly quizzes and tests, and managed to successfully finish my finals unscarred. The past two weeks, I had the opportunity to relax at home and reconnect with many friends and mentors.

I now write to you from my dorm room at Yale. Unfortunately during my break I didn’t have the opportunity to visit everyone, so I’ve decided to resort to technology in order to keep contact with the many people who have immensely impacted my life. I’ve decided that three times a year (at the end of the school year, beginning of the school year, and New Years), I will send out a newsletter detailing the ongoings and past events of my life. Of course, if you ever want to keep in contact in-between these letters, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me in your free time. I also have created a website (www.joelbervell.com) that has a “Contact Me” link if you would like to message me that way! I’m very active online and will always respond at my soonest convenience.

My winter break was wonderfully relaxing. For the first half of my three week break from school, I celebrated christmas with my family at home. For the remainder of my break, however, I traveled to Ghana, West Africa. As many of you may know, since 2009 I have been in charge of Hugs for

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“It does not do to dwell on dreams

and forget to live”- Albus Dumbledore

� Boola Boola is a greeting that is found in the Yale fight song.1

New Years Update Letter January 7, 2014

Ghana, an entirely student-led non-profit organization dedicated to giving gifts of hope and love to children in Mukilteo, Washington and Ghana. As I left home for college in August 2013, I entrusted the Washington chapter of Hugs for Ghana to my younger brother, Michael. Throughout 2013 he collected over $20,000 worth of sports equipment from local businesses, schools, and sports teams to take to a school we support in Ghana. He also collected stuffed animals to deliver to hospitals, orphanages and schools in the Accra area. I traveled to Ghana on December 27th. On December 31st I ushered in the New Year by hand-delivering stuffed animals to Ghanaian children in the pediatric ward of Korle-Bu Hospital. The experience never ceases to amaze me, the grins that spread across the faces of these children is so rewarding.

On January 2nd, we then traveled 9 hours by van to Tikobo II Elementary and Secondary School, a rural village that is home to hundreds of Ghanaian students. I wish I could accurately describe how excited these kids were to receive stuffed animals, soccer balls, jerseys, shoes, and other items to finally call their own. Some of the students were literally climbing into the van to receive their gifts! Traveling to Ghana is always a humbling and enjoyable experience, and I know I’ll be back soon! If you would like to see more pictures and videos from this trip as well as past trips, feel free to look at Hugs for Ghana’s new and improved website at www.hugsforghana.org. I’ve spent part of my break updating it so please let me know what you think of the website if you have time. While in Ghana, I had time to catch up with extended family (many of my cousins, aunts, and uncles live in Ghana), and relax before heading back to school. Upon returning, I’m always struck by how fortunate we are to have so much readily available to us. This upcoming summer, I’ll be planning Hugs for Ghana’s first ever service trip in which we will bring other students from Washington State to Ghana! I’m extremely excited to be leading this project and hope it goes well.

Beyond Ghana, this first semester has been full of lots of traveling! Over the past few months, I’ve flown to California as a speaker for a conference about financial literacy, visited Brown University in

Rhode Island, stayed a weekend in Atlanta for a Coca-Cola Scholarship Summit reunion and even taken a spontaneous trip to New York with friends for my first ever concert (Kanye West). I’ve also had the pleasure of meeting people that I couldn’t have dreamed like Danny Glover and Stephen Colbert. On Thursday, January 16th I will actually be a member of the live audience in Stephen Colbert’s show!

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“Service is the rent we pay to be living.”

- MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

New Years Update Letter January 7, 2014

Of course, among all these incredibly fun events has been the pressure of school work. I plan on studding MCDB (Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology) along the pre-med track. The path to becoming a doctor isn’t simple or easy, but I know in the end it will be entirely worth it. In terms of extracurriculars, I’m a part of Freshman Class Council, involved in one of Yale’s dance groups, am in LEAD (a leadership institute), and also UNICEF. I’m also planning on expanding Hugs for Ghana beyond just Ghana, so that we incorporate other countries as well. This new chapter of my life has been immensely exciting, and I can’t wait to experience what the future holds.

I would love to hear back from you about how everything is going. If you’re able to, please e-mail back! Have a wonderful 2014, and good luck with all your resolutions. Best, Joel Bervell

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!