In the second year since its inception, the Campolindo Think Tank is looking for action. The club was conceived last school year by junior president Brian Harrison. The mission of the Think Tank is to “[identify various issues] in the Lamorinda community, and…propose ideas [to solve them] in our meetings,” says the Think Tank’s secretary, senior Mason Chang. “We usually put [these ideas] into action to help improve [the community].”
According to Harrison, the club is all about “coming up with unique approaches and sticking through with them.” Meetings for the Think Tank are on Wednesdays at lunch in the library’s testing center, and they usually start off with brief updates from club leadership about current projects they are working on. Members then brainstorm ways to improve their work or bring up new project ideas inspired by problems in the community.
Harrison considers the Think Tank– particularly its leadership – a group of “well-educated, young individuals who might have either a perspective or access to resources that would help solve a problem where [prior] efforts to solve them would [not have worked]”.
Since last year, the Think Tank has been working to restore local creeks. Harrison, Chang, and vice president Maximilian Martinez De Hoz are collaborating with the board overseeing the restoration of a creek in Orinda.
The creek, however, is currently overshadowed by another project: right now, the club is working hard on their annual Tech Expo. Each member is responsible for covering a specific topic relating to the yearly theme–this year’s is protection against scams–and will present on their topics to schools and seniors around the community. The club “hop[es] to benefit seniors in the community as technology is helping people but also unfortunately enabling bad characters,” states Cathy Chang, Harrison’s mother.
Members have dedicated hours to brighten the Lamorinda community, and intend to do much more. “We [hope to] put it into action to help improve, in the long run, the local community,” says Chang.
