And then it’s over.

I dare you to make me keep going.

Those who know me know at least two things.

First.  Year Up.

Ever since being introduced to Year Up in 2009 I’ve been a passionate supporter.  Year Up is working hard to shrink the opportunity divide, to provide young adults with access to education and tools that today’s world needs for a successful career.

I wrote about Year Up but it’s worth repeating – the young folks I’ve encountered from Year Up embody intensity and determination for being more than they are today.  They are not satisfied with the status quo.  They are tomorrow’s leaders.  They are my inspiration.  They make me cry.  They make me laugh.  They will realize their full potential in ways I can not yet imagine.

Second.  Mozilla.

Mozilla is many things to many people.  For me, it’s a Mission and a Community.  Part of that Mission is Mozilla WebMaker.  Mozilla WebMaker is working hard to move people from simply using the web to making the web, “to increase their understanding of the web, take greater control of their online lives and create a more web literate planet.”  Without exaggeration, Mozilla is creating the next generation of web makers.

I Dare You

Imagine what happens if you teach tomorrow’s leaders how to create a more web literate planet?  Imagine if we can leverage the work Year Up is doing to bridge the skills & opportunity gap with tomorrow’s skills and WebMaking?

Imagine if everyone could realize their full potential.

Imagine if you played a small part in making that happen?

Can I combine those two passions – Year Up & Mozilla – and create something bigger than myself?  Can I put myself out there in a very public way?  In a way where you can laugh at me and help make a difference at the same time?

Can you keep me in this beard until March or July?  I dare you.

Dare accepted?

Help me raise money for Year Up by going to their donation site and write in “mrz beard” in the “Please allocate my donation to” blank.

Every dollar contributed will make an immediate impact on the lives of young adults, helping them reach their potential. Every dollar contributed will help teach WebMaking skills to tomorrow’s leaders.  Every $500 you help me raise is one more day I don’t shave.

Keep me in this beard until March, or June or even next December - I dare you.

YearUp's Core Values Award

I met Jay and Sahaar at YearUp and immediately saw possibilities for Mozilla’s participation and by January 2010 we welcomed our first, albeit entirely overdressed, YearUp intern, Justin, and followed that with our second intern, Henry, in August.

Going into 2011, Mozilla increased it’s participation with YearUp and took on three interns.

Three semesters (and we’re doing a fourth), five different students. Yet what stands out is their utter determination and strength to rise above whatever set of cards life handed out, hardship and opportunity divide be damned; their persistent drive to excel and their eagerness to soak up knowledge and wisdom from not just me but from their peers at Mozilla.

No doubt a lot of credit goes to YearUp. No doubt a lot more credit goes to the individual student. Very little goes to me – they’ve already plotted their own course – I’m only here, if anything, as a part-time teacher.

I’ve seen Justin and Henry step into roles I never thought they’d be in when they started. Both have become leaders in their own rights. Both continue to be advocates for YearUp within Mozilla, mentoring where I don’t have the faculties to do so.

And part of that defines what Mozilla is to me. It was Mozilla, after all, that rose against seemingly insurmountable odds to become a dominant web browser and an agent of change.

I recently learned that I had been recognized with YearUp’s Core Values Award, an award that recognizes those that embody YearUp’s principles; principles that are at the foundation of everything they do.

This isn’t an award I can accept on my own though.

It’s only an award I’m able to achieve because I have the privilege and luxury to stand on shoulders of giants who have helped me, who have mentored me, who have unknowingly shaped my own life (and whose numbers exceed my ability to adequately thank).

It is because of the way Mozilla has shaped and molded me over the past five years that I’m able to be thought of as “living YearUp’s Core Values”, the ability to think less of the individual importance of self but the overall success of the whole, of the Project and of the Community (and ironically success of the latter tends to bring the former).

I’m humbled to even be considered for such an award let alone be privileged to work with YearUp. That I’ve had any part in shaping another human’s trajectory in life is mind numbingly humbling (and not something I ever specifically set out to do).

I’ll leave with a few words from an email I sent after attending my first YearUp graduation where Mozilla was presented with YearUp’s Urban Empowerment Award:

It is with a sense of awe and a feeling of pride to be involved with YearUp.