Evan is a software engineer and inventor. He has worked at various tech startups and developed open source technologies including a protocol for connecting payment networks, a tool to make political phonebanking more efficient, and a framework that makes debugging software easier. Evan is currently working on Scour, a personalized news feed that searches thousands of sources for articles and blog posts related to users' interests.

EVAN'S CRS STORY

Camp Rising Sun, LAJF’s flagship program, is an international leadership experience that brings together teenagers from 30+ countries. Campers attend completely free of charge and it’s been running continuously for 95 years. 

The most impactful part of attending CRS for me was being encouraged to think about how the program and physical space could be changed. Campers set the schedule for each day and week and have wide latitude to alter the program. Beyond that, counselors often respond to campers’ questions about how something should be done by asking “what do you think?” or “be your own leader”. This was absolutely revelatory for me, who was used to school being a rigid structure determined by adults. 

My peak camp experience was in 2006 when another camper, a counselor, and I had the idea to take on an ambitious construction project with only two weeks left in the summer. We enlisted the whole camp’s help to build Big Ben, an 8-person bench swing made of thousand-pound logs. While the frame has since rotted out, that 8-person bench is still in use at CRS nearly 20 years later. If you’re at CRS, it's magical to walk around and realize how many of the seemingly permanent structures and traditions were actually created by campers.

I moved back to New York after 16 years away, and one of the things I am most excited about is getting more involved in LAJF. I joined the board of directors in April and I’m extremely enthusiastic about the direction of the organization. I would love for you to join me in supporting this organization that has had a profound impact on me and thousands of others over nearly 100 years.

We thank our Board of Directors for their passionate leadership of LAJF and CRS!