Resolution '12 encourages altruistic New Year's resolutions

It might still be November, but Resolution ’12 wants to change the way you think about New Year’s resolutions. With nearly 100 submissions of socially conscious, service-driven resolutions to date, the project is looking to make a difference in the world, one resolution at a time.

The concept of Resolution ’12 is to “challenge individuals to make New Year’s resolutions that aren’t self-centric, like quitting smoking or saving $100, but are service-minded and outward-focused,” University Chaplain Chaz Howard said.

The project builds on last year’s Resolution ’11, which was launched the day after last Thanksgiving by Howard and his friends Len Matty and Nathan Jones. Their team quickly grew to include 2000 College graduate Rachel Ryan, Wharton junior Ankit Shah, and 2010 College graduate Danielle Heitmann, who is the Project Manager at the Christian Association at Penn.

Last year, Resolution ’11 began building its web presence with a blog, Facebook page and Twitter and received over a thousand hits each week and upwards of 500 resolutions within a month — a number that increased steadily up until New Year’s Day. According to Howard, the resolutions ranged from pledging to become a Big Brother or Big Sister to working at soup kitchens to deciding to adopt a child.

While resolutions can be submitted online or in person anonymously, many people leave their name or email address. “By declaring [their resolutions] publicly, there’s more accountability and a personal challenge — it’s not a secret resolution,” Howard said.

“We’re not trying to get the biggest numbers – we’d rather have 100 meaningful resolutions that people care about,” he added. “The challenge is to help guide them to what a good resolution would be.”
Since its inception, the project has spread internationally to include submissions from China, Australia and Africa, and has developed a diverse group of contributors — from college students to noted journalists to University President Amy Gutmann. Howard attributes much of its rapid success to word-of-mouth and social media promotion, as well as features in publications like The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Huffington Post.

This year, a MGMT-100 team has been working to promote Resolution ’12 in the Penn community through social media, flyers and banners around campus. Wharton freshman Maria Corella said that so far she has seen resolutions from “people from different walks of life,” ranging from students resolving to take shorter showers to presidents of non-profits promising to continue their philanthropic work.

“Moving forward, the goal for Resolution ‘12 is to become a movement of getting people to not only set self-focused goals, but goals involving giving and service to the people around us,” Shah wrote in an email. “That movement entails not only a web presence, but a creation of a network of individuals who support each other, especially as lots of people have complementary service resolutions.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.