The Inspiration Behind BeyondPartners
”I created this nonprofit organization on behalf of my little brother, Jason who has Down syndrome. Growing up, although it was easier for me to make friends and go on play dates, my brother stayed home. My everyday routine looked a lot different from Jason’s. While public school system gained a range of CTE and music programs within the academic curriculum, varsity sports, and clubs, not many resources and opportunities were equally accessible to children with disabilities. Jason? He loves to play tennis, basketball, and soccer; he is a natural-born artist and super good at tinkering with engineering tools or conducting science experiments. He’s social and loves to connect with other kids. Since sports or music lessons may be unaffordable to some people, we thought it’d be awesome to create cost-free opportunities in STEM, music, art, and sports for kids to explore their individual passions while having fun.
I wanted to do more for Jason than just be his best and closest friend at home, I wanted to give him every opportunity that I had in a fun, exciting, and most of all, safe manner. Using our strengths in connecting with people and bridging youth together under one team, Jason and I want to spread family and inclusivity. The inspiration behind this community is to bring joy to other children all around the world that have yet to unlock their potential.”
BeyondPartners is a nonprofit organization that started as a community service organization in 2022, before receiving the 501(c)(3) status in early 2024. Founded in Stafford County, VA, the organization has been expanding rapidly over the DMV and internationally. Besides the community aspect of this organization, we value the industrial and administrative side of our student organized and led nonprofit. BeyondPartners endorses student leaders all around the world. Being young doesn’t diminish your capacity to make a difference in the community. BeyondPartners provides real executive positions to students who are ready to apply their abilities to executive power. When Lindsay Lee founded BeyondPartners, she had a vision for growing the organization knowing the capabilities of young but qualified students. She wanted to promote and foster student leadership, “I want talented students to unite and build connections, I want to provide a welcoming space where young leaders can express their ideas and feel heard, I want a community where everyone learns how to work through tribulations and celebrate each milestone together. For high schoolers who haven’t found their purpose yet, I want to give them motivation and drive to work toward something. Most of all, I want students to learn from their experience helping BeyondPartners to apply to their own startups, futures, relationships, and careers,” says Lindsay.
Lindsay grew up facing trial and error as her ideas and aspirations were often rejected because she was “too young.” Her own parents had told her that starting BeyondPartners was a “big” idea and that it would be an unrealistic responsibility for her to take up at this age. She did her research without them knowing, explored the idea, and made the first step on her own. Throughout her personal growth journey, she found her passion for leading and initiating others to be their best, she describes the experience as “—leading is not about being the leader, but about fostering others to become leaders. Sometimes you have to step down, and let others take charge with their ideas and trust them. Being supportive is what being a leader is, allowing your team to create the product. It’s more than being the face of the organization, but more so the backbone holding everyone up behind the last curtain.” She wants to help others to achieve their dreams in bettering the community and is happy to support or help out any students looking to start their own organization. Just reach out to her personal email at leelindsay.edu@gmail.com.
Coming Up With Our Logo
“I wanted to create something loving, warm, and welcoming to be the face of our organization. I decided to hand design it myself to best convey my thoughts and hopes for BeyondPartners Inc. because this is something I wholeheartedly feel for. Each part of what seems to be a simple, quickly-crafted logo, has thought behind it. I hope you can read through my thought process of how our logo was created and empathize with our cause.” CEO, Lindsay Lee.
The Brainstorming Process: “During the process of hand designing our logo, I wanted to convey our brand, name, and purpose into a picture. I wanted two people representing friendship and love with a heart in the middle. Although our nonprofit organization aims to create inclusivity for children and adults with all different kinds of disabilities, I chose the colors blue and yellow to represent BeyondPartners because they advocate for Down Syndrome. This has a special place in my heart because my little brother has Down Syndrome.”
Jason Drew the Heart: “I wanted my little brother, Jason, to have a special part in helping me build this community. Because he was my inspiration behind this project, and he loves to draw, he was more than happy to accept when I asked him to draw a heart for me for the center of our logo. He drew four hearts (below) and said that he liked the fourth the best.”
Finishing Touches: “Using my digital art platform on my iPad, I hand drew the two little guys, made everything look a little neater, and filled in using the colors that I wanted. I added our name, branding, and that’s how our logo was made!”
What our name means
Our name is built on the belief that no matter the differences, we are all beyond partners or beings of an existing community; we are friends, we are family, we are one. BeyondPartners strives to create memories, to spread love, and create a community that breaks physical, intellectual, social, and disability barriers to foster friendship beyond that of associates.
BeyondPartners 