At a second home like Reserve, it’s hard to imagine not having a home at all. Today’s Waring Prize Speaker and next luminary in our Bicentennial Speaker Series, Maria Paparella ’16, illuminated the issue of aging out of the foster care system. Her nonprofit organization, Chair-ity, improves the lives of youths leaving foster care by furnishing their first apartments. A graduate of Kenyon College, Paparella launched her passion project at Reserve, and today looked back on the impact the school had and her path from student to nonprofit leader.
The Waring Prize is bestowed to an alumni member who, by their way of life and achievements, whether at the beginning, middle or end of their career, represents the human and individual values that WRA strives to foster. WRA alumni members can nominate classmates for this recognition, and past recipients include poets, entrepreneurs, educators, scientists, clergy members — and now, fittingly, Paparella.
With a teary introduction illustrative of the power and joy of mentorship, Dean of Academic Affairs Wanda Boesch-Cordon P’22 introduced Paparella, describing her accomplishments and saying, “I do not tell her enough how proud I am of her for being an extraordinary woman making a difference in the world.” Since starting Chair-ity, Papparella has outfitted 750 apartments in Summit and six other counties in Northeast Ohio.
Paparella said the hardest thing about what she does is the emotional toll it takes, describing one furniture delivery where the recipient was in her apartment with only, “a pillow, a blanket and a trash bag full of clothes.” She described grappling with feelings of sadness, guilt and uncertainty wondering how the people she helps will care for their children, get to their jobs and build a life with little or no support.
But, as Boesch-Cordon said, Chair-ity is a “beacon of hope.” The backstory, like those of the most impassioned public servants, is personal, with Paparella describing her own family’s interest in adoption, which did not work out, but left her always wondering about the sister she might have had. She followed the path of this young girl — in foster care — from kindergarten through high school, simultaneously lamenting the dehumanizing reality of even being able to view this kind of personal path online and dreaming how she could make a difference.
While at Reserve, Paparella reached out to Summit County Social Services. They said their greatest need was goods for the homes of those leaving foster care, as well as moving services for furniture.
“I had seen my older cousins move into their first apartments — a little apartment becomes a home with contributions from family,” Paparella said. She wanted to provide this sense of community and hope for those who weren’t necessarily born into either.
“Home is somewhere you can let your hair down, where you feel safe, where you can trust and connect with people,” she said. Delivering furniture, it turns out, was also delivering these feelings.
She reminded current students of the privilege of being at Reserve, showing them that if they were in different shoes — those of kids in the foster care system — they’d be unlikely to attend college, and they’d face pervasive risks for this population, including homelessness, unplanned pregnancies, human trafficking.
Her advice to Pioneers was simple: do something with the opportunity you have been given. We applaud Paparella’s selfless work and embodiment of the spirit of the Waring Prize, which represents the human and individual values WRA strives to foster.
