Alex Levin, Doing the Right Thing
He transitioned from being a very competitive college baseball player who didn’t care much about school to becoming an academic—aspiring to be a physician—and we got to be part of that journey.
Alex Levin (Portland OR) has a large capacity and prefers to be busy. So, while he awaited a response from his medical school applications, he decided to volunteer as a mentor with Great Life Mentoring. He thought it would be a good fit since he cares about healthcare disparities, youth homelessness, education and mentoring. He had already been a mentor several times over the course of his adult life and had found it to be exceptionally beneficial to the child, while rewarding to himself as well.
After going through Great Life Mentoring’s screening and training process, Alex was invited to be a mentor. The only challenge the staff had with Alex was figuring out… “who’s going to get him?” This mentor was a prize.
Fitness is a huge part of his life, keeping Alex grounded, but he also really enjoys chess, playing guitar, attempting to cook, doing puzzles and reading; all things he could do with the young friend he mentors.
But, going a little deeper, we also know Alex to be someone who practices good social awareness, he’s able to be present in the moment and he’s naturally empathic. All skills which are important in mentoring.
There were two things that really prompted the change in his life. He told us, “I kept getting hurt. I had four surgeries on my pitching arm, and I just really struggled mentally, emotionally and physically with the rat race of putting so much time and effort into getting healthy only for it to keep crashing in my face.”
But out of that experience, Alex developed an interest in science and biomechanics. It was out of interest in learning how to prevent himself from getting hurt that he was really exposed to medicine for the first time.
The second part was that he wanted service to be a core part of his career, and he says, “It was hard to square the egotism of professional athletics with the ethic of helping others, that my parents instilled in me from a young age. Medicine ties the service and the science together, which are the things I am most passionate about.”
Somehow, over the past couple of years while doing medical rotations all over Oregon that often entailed long hours 6 days a week, Alex still made time to serve on the board of directors for Great Life Mentoring.
“I think the world of Great Life Mentoring; not only from a global mission perspective, but of the people that run it. I thought that it was a unique opportunity to make an impact from a different angle — one that was unfamiliar to me — and that I would learn a lot in the process.” Alex told us.
This curious, introspective, authentic and very intelligent man has donated somewhere around a thousand hours to Great Life Mentoring over the past five years. He doesn’t seek recognition or acknowledgement to fuel his desire to serve. He tells us, “I do it because it needs to be done, and because it is the right thing to do. The more you give, the more you have.”
It appears that Alex Levin is in fact following John Wesley’s advice:
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Alex wanted to become a doctor and he did it, all while helping Great Life Mentoring as well! The world is richer because of his generosity.
The secret to a Great Life begins with you.