When Trevor Patzer was growing up in Ketchum, Idaho, he received an unusual offer from family friend Ric Ohrstrom: get admitted to New Hampshire's prestigious St. Paul's School, and Mr. Ohrstrom would foot the entire bill for his schooling there.
Mr. Patzer was accepted and graduated three years later. He says the experience of someone offering to pay for his high-school education had a profound effect on him, and the gift was always in the back of his mind, even as he moved to college and into the work world.
After graduating from Brown University, Mr. Patzer, now 35, headed off to Andersen Consulting to be a systems integration consultant. "It was that or investment banking," he says. But it didn't take him long to realize that there was more to life than "coding someone else's computers," he says. "I knew it wasn't the best fit for me. I'm a people person." Still, he kept plugging away in consulting for two more years.
Phil Wiltse Trevor Patzer, who got a free private-school education, helps girls in Southeast Asia with scholarships.
During one of his vacations in 1998, he decided to visit Nepal and see "the biggest mountain in the world." While there, Mr. Patzer had another life-changing experience and it had little to do with the majestic awe of Mount Everest. His tour guide for the trip was Usha Acharya, an author and the wife of Nepal's former ambassador to the United Nations. While they took in various historic sites together, she talked to Mr. Patzer about the plight of poor children in Nepal. He decided on the spot that he wanted to fund the education of a Nepalese child, in the same spirit Mr. Ohrstrom had funded his education. When Mr. Patzer asked Ms. Acharya if she knew of such a child, she spoke of a young girl who could benefit from his philanthropy.
The foundation for Mr. Patzer and Ms. Acharya's nonprofit, the Little Sisters Fund, which provides long-term scholarships to girls in Southeast Asia, was laid right at that moment. Mr. Patzer took his time before moving into Little Sisters full time. "I didn't just jump ship" right away, he says. "I'm just a bit more conservative in nature." But, he left Andersen two years later and took a position as a recruiter for teachers at private schools in Boston. Later, he worked as an assistant admissions director for a private high school in Alexandria, Va., and finally as a project supervisor for a luxury-resort company that was setting up high-end spas in Southeast Asia.
All along, he worked on Little Sisters during the weekends and evenings. And he says each job he took helped move him forward in his quest to make Little Sisters bigger, because each position had either an education or a Southeast Asia component to it.
In the summer of 2006, Mr. Patzer finally decided to dive into the Little Sisters Fund full time. To keep costs down, he is the only U.S.-based paid employee. Everyone else is volunteer or based in Nepal where salaries are much lower. From paying for the education of that first girl, whose name was Bindhaya, the organization has grown and is currently providing long-term scholarships to more than 700 girls.
And Mr. Patzer plans to grow it even more in the coming years, according to Quentin Koffey, a friend and board member for the Little Sisters' Fund. "Trevor is extremely proactive and really believes he can make a difference," says Mr. Koffey, adding that Mr. Patzer seems to always have a way to deal with problems that come up. "And, as long as he believes there is a solution, Trevor's DNA just drives him toward doing something about it."
This spring, Mr. Patzer is being given an Unsung Hero of Compassion Award from the Dalai Lama, something he says confirms for him the importance of the work his organization is doing. He says he hasn't looked back since moving into the position full time. "I have the best job in the world, and I get to meet the most amazing, compelling individuals," he says.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123723970910247301.html?mod=article-outset-box
