Starting a brand-new career on Valentine’s Day must be a good sign. For me, the process of joining the Light Foundation has felt like “love at first sight.” I am thankful for the opportunity to become part of this hard-working, mission-focused and committed team.
In this next chapter, I was fortunate enough to be led to an organization that is closely aligned with my personal values and passion for working with young people. The Light Foundation, founded in 2001 by Matt and Susie Light, works to take young people out of their everyday environments and provide them with unique opportunities that ignite their passion, purpose and motivation to succeed.
The journey that brought me to this role as Development and Events Director has been an amazing one. My experience working in the corporate world at John Hancock (JH) for 30+ years allowed me the opportunity to cultivate my passion for community. I did so while working on global initiatives such as the Olympics and national efforts like Major League Baseball. It’s only fitting that I would ultimately make the transition to the non-profit sector and join the Light Foundation.
My professional experience has mainly been driven by a desire to help solve problems with our community partners that support our most vulnerable populations. It is working with young people that gives me the most personal fulfillment. While I was at JH, we created a teen summer jobs program, MLK Scholars, in partnership with the City of Boston and Boston University. Each year, we partnered with 60 selected non-profits through an application process and funded summer jobs for 600+ of their teens. As part of that program, we hosted leadership workshops each Friday at BU for all 600 teens. It was part of my role to oversee logistics for the events, program development, volunteers and our partnerships.
I’m very excited to transfer my skills to support the Light Foundation and the growth of our youth programming. I’m currently working on our Leadership Conference in partnership with Bridgewater State University. The New England-based program is a natural fit for the work I love to do.
As the Light Foundation continues to grow, I look forward to helping the team expand our donor base, increase fundraising efforts, frame our data management systems, build our brand and increase public awareness around the work we do.
Mauryanne Remondini
Director, Development & Events
