our team.
Rebecca Kantar
Founding Member, CEO
Since 2007, Rebecca has dedicated her passion, time, and talent to Minga. In the fall of 2010, while entering Harvard College, Rebecca brought on Minga’s new team of young leaders, Board of Directors members, and a vast network of professional advisors from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Beyond Minga, Rebecca also serves as Youth Advisory Council member at Ashoka’s Youth Venture and to Do Something. For her leadership, Rebecca was awarded the TIME Magazine and Bentley University Tomorrow25 Award and a dozen similar honors. Most recently, Rebecca won the Staples/Youth Venture Social Entrepreneurship Competition Grand Prize, delivered a TEDx Talk, and was named a Harvard Center for Public Interest Careers Summer Fellow.
Leora Friedman
Mentor
Leora Friedman is a sophomore at Princeton University, where she plans to study either Politics or Public/International Affairs. She is the CEO of Music is Medicine, an organization she founded at age 15 that uses music to uplift pediatric patients and fundraise for medical charities. She is also the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the National Youth Association and a member of Do Something’sYouth Advisory Council. In 2009, she received the Grand-Prize of the Key Change Grant, sponsored by Do Something and the Grammy Foundation, for her work using music to make a difference. Leora was also featured on Do Something’s website as one of “11 Grammy-Worthy Musicians Who Do Good,” and she has spoken at schools on the power of youth-led social change. In 2011, she was honored as Global Teen Leader by the We Are Family Foundation and received a week of nonprofit training with 30 teen leaders from around the world. Aside from her nonprofit work, Leora has served as an intern at Girls’ Life Magazine and the Johns Hopkins Center for Law and the Public’s Health.
Marissa Lorusso
Intern
Vassar College
I’m working with Minga because I think that engaging teens to combat the child sex trade is empowering, world-changing, and just plain awesome. In my wildest dreams, I’m going to grow up and be a rock star.
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Jennifer Hanson
Intern
Westminster College
I believe that everyone has the power to affect change, especially teens.
I hope to travel to India one day.
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Emily Breuer
Intern
Newton South High School
I work with Minga because I am interested in improving the lives of teens who are currently in the child sex trade, and I want to learn more about how nonprofit organizations work. I hope to travel to all 50 states during my lifetime!
Sarah Pincus
Founding Member, Mentor
Sarah Pincus is a founding member of Minga and has held many different leadership roles within the group since its earliest beginnings in 2006. Among other roles, she has served as Director of Branding and Marketing, overseen Minga Club communications, acted as Minga’s group facilitator and organized fundraisers. She also traveled to Guatemala with Minga in 2007 and organized and wenton Minga’s “Let’s Get Real” Road Trip in 2009. She recently completed her freshman year at Connecticut College. This summer, she is serving as a mentor for Minga’s internship program.
Allison Wu
Mentor
Allison Wu is a rising senior at Newton North High School. She is deeply involved in her community, serving on various school and citywide committees and taking on leadership roles in all her activities. Beyond Minga, she is Theatre Ink’s marketing director and is an advocate for student voice in education reform. She has maintained honor roll status throughout high school, was selectedby the Newton Rotary Club as the Student of the Month in October 2010, and won the Harvard Book Award in May 2011.
Niki Sholemson
Intern
University of Maryland College Park
I work with Minga because not only do we work to fight a huge issue, but the atmosphere of all of the people working together for this change are fun and unique. This organization is not just a nonprofit, it stands for teen empowerment and involvement as well! A hope I have for the future is that I can travel to every continent and live with at least 10 different cultures.
Tania Karboff
Intern
Williams College
I work with Minga because I feel responsible for shattering the silence that surrounds the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and for highlighting the outrageous injustice towards the millions of children deprived from their human rights. I hope to one day go wing-suit flying down the Himalayan Mountains!
Rose Pierre-Louis
Intern
Bryn Mawr College
I work with Minga to empower women.
I hope to go skydiving sometime soon
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Gabbi Morgenstern
Intern
Newton North High School
I work with Minga because I love the idea of using the incredibly potent power of teens to fight for a cause as important as ending the child sex trade. This is super dorky, but I hope to one day win a Nobel Prize in either medicine or chemistry.