B u l l e t i n - Noble and Greenough School

A BeLIeVeR
IN CHANGe
Misha Kaufman ’08 may not have his Columbia University diploma
in hand yet, but he is already taking on the world.
“i’ve started a nonprofit called Centsable
to introduce a comprehensive
financial-literacy curriculum into the
New York City school system on a
macro scale,” says Misha kaufman ’08.
“One of the major reasons we’re in the
kind of economic shape we’re in is that
individuals don’t know how to manage
their finances.”
The Centsable curriculum will be
beta-tested in select New York public
schools this spring, starting with one
curriculum designed for kindergartners
and another for sixth graders. eventually,
kaufman hopes to develop materials
for all k–12 classrooms.
“We’re meeting with a lot of organizations,
banks and schools,” he says,
adding that Teachers College at Columbia
has been a great resource. “My
goal is to expand Centsable on a national
scale in order to ensure that financial
literacy is taught in public
schools nationwide.”
kaufman credits much of his public-spiritedness
to Nobles, particularly a
profound experience during a spring
service trip working with babies in a
Romanian orphanage. Since 1999, Nobles
students and faculty have partnered
with Boston-based Romanian
Children’s Relief to provide care, physi-
22 the Nobles bulletiN spring 2012
cal play, feeding and psychosocial stimulation
to abandoned children.
Seeing and spending time with children
in Romania, whose faces still
haunt him, was particularly powerful
and poignant for kaufman, making
him understand his own life in a new
way. “I lived in an orphanage in Russia
until I was 3,” kaufman says. “My experience
was similar to those children.
It got me thinking about how fortunate
I was to be adopted.”
Nobles Director of College Counseling
Michael Denning, a man not given
to hyperbole, says that the college essay
kaufman wrote about his experience in
Romania was “the best I ever read.”
While Columbia has been an amazing
experience, kaufman says his years
at Nobles were formative. “Nobles was
crucial. You don’t even understand how
amazing Nobles is until you leave. I
was able to establish deep relationships
with so many teachers.”
As if launching a new program in
the New York City schools isn’t enough
to keep a college senior busy, kaufman
is also involved in Columbia’s selective
ADVANCe program for developing
young leaders. In addition to taking a
range of leadership classes, kaufman
will get hands-on experience through
an internship with a nonprofit doing
computer-literacy work in several New
York schools.
He also has designed a recycling
program for Columbia this year and
created an iPad app called DreamIt
(available on the Apple online store).
DreamIt is a goal-setting application
set up to help individuals choose their
top-five goals from a list of categories
and track their progress; the app sends
reminders to keep users on track.
“I love creating things,” kaufman
says.
The Columbia senior is double majoring
in history and anthropology. “I
like anthropology because it deals with
the idea that culture is a construct,” he
says. “That idea motivates my work—
the notion that things can change, that
they are malleable.”
As May approaches, kaufman is
considering what comes next. “I really
want to run Centsable full time,” he
says, but he concedes that he might have
to get a job. “I have applied for Teach for
America and Venture America.”
In the meantime, he is fundraising
for Centsable. Asked if he plans to contact
New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, kaufman says, “He’s on my
list.” —CATHeRINe O’NeILL GRACe