Sunday was a big day in our household. My daughter Reagan is wrapping up her senior year in high school and is headed off to Wake Forest University next year. And while her high school graduation is a big deal, so too was this weekend’s celebration of her concluding her National Charity League (NCL) experience.

National Charity League is all about the shared experience of community service underpinning the relationship between a mother and her daughter. Chapters span across America, each with its own unique take on service, organizational structure and dues, but with a shared goal of both improving society and helping moms and daughters traverse the teenage years. As many moms can attest, those can be quite challenging for the mother-daughter relationship.

I was made a part of the ceremony this weekend, both as an attendee in the audience and as a dad joining my wife and daughter on stage to celebrate Reagan’s accomplishments. She put in over 500 hours of community service during her six years in NCL, helping kids in disadvantaged communities, donating time at the Ronald McDonald House and crafting homemade cotton masks at the start of the pandemic. She also led meetings of her peers, chaired annual philanthropic events and organized cultural outings for her class.

Fourteen incredible young women crossed the stage on Sunday. They demonstrated a strong internal drive, excellent discipline and a capacity to make good choices. However, I also saw the incredible investment made by moms and families into the program and effort to support participation or to join their daughters in the work of charity. NCL members learn lifelong skills about leadership, public speaking, poise, attire choice, making classy decisions and generally being a net contributor to society. Each of the fourteen graduates is bound for college, and I can already tell that each of them will make a heck of a new team member when they start their first job after college. And, yes. I started recruiting them on Sunday.

As employers and hiring professionals, I suggest you look for NCL experience in the background of your potential hires. As community leaders, I urge you to either find or create an NCL chapter in your community for the benefits of the young women, moms and the local charities who can leverage their energy and talents. I also urge community leaders to celebrate NCL chapters with their public voices. Bringing charitable organizations like this to your communities helps build the social framework that our society needs to create cohesion and move the needle on difficult community challenges. Finally, if you are a parent with a young daughter, give NCL a look. It was one of the best parental decisions my wife made over the last 18 years (and she has made a LOT of great decisions).

I saw a slice of the future on Sunday, and I felt immense pride, confidence and appreciation.

Make Good Choices,