High school students are most often pegged as being selfish and irresponsible.

By the time it was freshman year, we noticed that we were living with a constant sense of guilt hanging over our heads. Perhaps it was because our families seemed to be doing a lot more for us than we were doing for them, or maybe it was because everyone thought we were contributing so much for social change around the world, when in reality we were doing very little.

So when the director of the Western Massachusetts chapter of B'nai Tzedek, a national teen philanthropy program, sought us out to join the group, we willingly took our positions. The group was comprised of some 20 other teens that were striving equally as hard to make a real difference in the world.

Youth philanthropy itself, if done right, has the potential to influence an entirely new generation of givers. But when I arrived at the first B'nai Tzedek meeting, it seemed as though the giving was being made selfishly instead of selflessly. It seemed that people were giving what they wanted to the organizations they personally felt were important; not always the most deserving candidate.

In the fall, our group developed a mission statement in order to unite those personal ideas into a group focus. This process was not as harmonious as we had imagined. At times it was a struggle to try to merge individual ideas into one mission, and required that members move from making personal decisions to thinking about the group instead.

From the mission statement, we moved on to soliciting grant proposals from non-profit organizations looking to fund social justice projects. This proved challenging since we are a small group and it is hard to get our name out. But spring came, and it was already time to allocate our grant money. Our mission statement guided us, and we chose to exclude grant applicants, that although great, simply did not fit our mission. We used a number of voting techniques to take into account the feelings of everyone in the group and to build consensus about which organizations to fund.

When we began our grant-making process, we found out that each grant applicant's ideas were completely different. And yet from this, we came to understand an important fact: Every grant applicant is trying to do good in the world. So in the end, there was really no bad choice.

One of the most important lessons we have learned is that philanthropy isn't a completely pure thing; grants are made for many different reasons, not all of them just. But, no matter how the decisions are made, the important part is that they are made. Monetary philanthropy is responsible for so much of the good work done in the world.

So while the process may not be the fairytale ending we hoped for, the results definitely are. We never would have had the opportunity to allocate $18,000 if not for B'nai Tzedek and youth philanthropy. Perhaps the process of making grants as a group is not perfect, but it has taught us so much about affecting change. Philanthropy is a starting point, and we need to go further.

Philanthropy can be seen in a very narrow focus—those with money giving to those people who need money—but there is so much more. Money is only a small piece in the puzzle; you have to make change through time and effort. Philanthropy is great, but if that is where the process of change stops, we aren't doing all we can. We must vow to finish what we start.

Adam Simkin is 18 and will attend Penn next year with little idea of what he wants to major in. He has been active in youth philanthropy for four years, helping to plan the first national Jewish Youth Philanthropy Conference. He is a recently registered "independent" voter and enjoys running in his spare time. He struggles with maintaining collections and reading English literature.

Sophie Herscu graduates from Amherst Regional High School this month. She has been a board member of B’nai Tzedek for the last three years. She is an avid runner and Ultimate Frisbee player. She plans to attend Colorado College next year and pursue Peace & Justice Studies.