Hi! I'm Olivia, and I'm a 23 year old woman who has been living in New York City for the past 2 years. I'm originally from a small town in an affluent part of Connecticut, but I moved down south to North Carolina to attend college at Wake Forest University. While I enjoyed my time in the south very much, I ended up missing the northeast - and especially New York City - very, very much! So, I moved back after graduation and have been working in marketing at an international law firm for the past two years. I love this city, and I love that I'm only about an hour away from my family in CT. I live with my best friend, Lizzy, who I've known since high school, and we have a wonderful time enjoying the city together. I have a wonderful, supportive, loving boyfriend named Matthew. I feel so lucky to have found someone like him!

All in all, I consider myself a very fortunate girl, so I like to spend my free time giving back to those less fortunate as much as I can. I volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, which pairs underpriveleged kids and teenagers with a mentor to give them support and make sure they stay focused on their studies. Sometimes it's easy to forget that, in a city that has so much wealth like New York, there are people strugging to get by all around us. I adore Big Brothers Big Sisters because they give support and mentoring to children whose parents aren't able to devote as much as time as they'd like to - working multiple jobs, scraping to get by. I believe education is the greatest tool we have to fight poverty and injustice, and I admire Big Brothers Big Sisters so much for their commitment to this goal.

As much as I love my work with Big Brothers Big Sisters, I am yearning to get involved with organizations that are more international in scope as well. After reading the incredible book "Half the Sky" by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl Wudunn, I was struck by how much work there is to be done in the area of women's rights internationally. I am so grateful to Nick and Sheryl for writing that book and opening my eyes to the injustices occuring every minute around the world. I plan to become a volunteer with an organization that helps women in Africa (I'm especially interested in organizations that work in the Democratic Republic of Congo) this fall.

I am extremely excited to be a part of the World Pulse community, and I look forward to sharing and listening to all of your wonderful stories.