#110: Welcoming Family Empowerment Intern – Cecilia Lin

We welcome Cecilia Lin to support our family empowerment team with grant writing assistance! Please read to learn more about Cecilia!

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Hi, I’m Cecilia Lin, a current graduate student at Vanderbilt University Peabody College. I was born in China and studied in the UK and the US. 

In my journey, I realized not only my goals in life but also the need to undertake social responsibility to pay attention to marginalized communities. When I was working in a K-12 international education consulting company in Shenzhen, I felt full of accomplishment helping children to find their way which is a meaningful journey to awaken one’s soul through education. Moreover, with the inspiration from my mother who donated to more than 2000+ students in 10+ years, I want to help more children have equal rights to be educated which is the reason I want to work in philanthropy.

In my academic journey, I developed a $400,000 grant proposal for the School Readiness Bilingual Program at the Sesame Workshop for 300 Pre-K Spanish-speaking children in Nashville. Simultaneously, I collaborated with FUTURO, an award-winning non-profit dedicated to creating opportunities in education and the workplace for students in Tennessee, to design virtual learning strategies projected to empower 1,200+ students with the Vanderbilt consulting team. I delivered audience needs assessment, landscape analysis, stakeholder engagement, project roadmap, identification of core curriculum, and leading practices. The deliverables will serve as key performance indicators and a helpful roadmap for FUTURO in 2026.

Thanks to the Schermco family for giving me the opportunity to work in the foundation world. Now, as a Grants Research and Fundraising Intern, I’m excited to collaborate with amazing partners to convert bold ideas into measurable impact. Education is the lever. My goal is to keep pulling it for the community!