Eleven-year-old, Connor Berryhill, a native of San Diego, California, is determined to save the world’s oceans, one beach cleanup at a time. He is the founder of the MicroActivist Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to “connecting youth with the world’s oceans” and bringing awareness to issues surrounding ocean conservation. To date, Berryhill’s foundation has collected over 19,000 pounds of trash from the Pacific. An avid scuba diver, a lover of all ocean animals, “I feel happiest when I’m at the bottom of the ocean,” he says.

Berryhill’s mission to clean the world’s oceans was ignited more than five years ago on a trip visiting family in Kauai. He was only five years old when he had a serendipitous face-to-face encounter with a Hawaiian monk seal while walking on the beach set out to learn everything he could about the species. When he discovered that there are only about  1,000 left in the world- they often get trapped in discarded nets in the water- he was heartbroken and felt compelled to do something to help prevent their numbers from further dwindling.

Berryhill’s parents, Lynel and Shawn, knew their son needed to take on an active role in remedying this monk seal dilemma; he would not be able to sit on the sidelines. He subsequently began picking up trash on various beaches. These small acts of kindness did not go unnoticed- the local media ran a story about him, which was then followed by more coverage from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Then Dr. Terrie M. Williams, an expert on Hawaiian monk seals and other large endangered mammals, invited Berryhill to visit her at the Williams Integrative Carnivore EcoPhysiology lab at the University of California in Santa Cruz. At the time, just beginning kindergarten.

From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, the last few decades have witnessed a colossal explosion of wealth in the United States, creating a large and powerful upper class. Entrepreneurs with a hefty social conscience-including Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg- have accumulated vast amounts of money, the majority of which  they decided to give away through charitable acts like signing the Giving Pledge.  In order to facilitate this mass giving, thousands of foundations have been created to tackle a huge number of critical issues facing society- everything from ensuring affordable post-secondary education in the U.S., preventing climate change, to implementing global vaccination programs.

In his latest non-fiction book, The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age, author, David Callahan, who has spent most of his life in the nonprofit sector, asks some provocative questions about the far-reaching power of living philanthropists and their ability to influence the many facets of America.

“Philanthropy is becoming a much stronger power center and, in some areas, is set to surpass government and its ability to shape society’s agenda,” he alerts the reader in the prologue. “Still, as more mega-donors emerge, with any number of grand ambitions, we need to ask much harder questions about the accountability of philanthropy, which operates outside of familiar checks and balances,” he writes. The Givers, which is based on numerous interviews with top philanthropists, is what Callahan describes as an  “intellectual smorgasbord” where he strives to know more about these “super-citizens”, how they think and operate, as well as their potential broader impact on America and public policy.

‘This is what I know…I’m a work in progress,” writes veteran ballet and jazz dancer, Marjorie Goodson, in the foreword of MG, an ambitious collection of over 150 riveting photographic essays, beautifully formatted in a sleek, oversized hardcover art book.

Provocative, gritty and sensual, Goodson is photographed striking elaborate theatrical poses in the midst of dance, on location in Southern California (the dunes at Pismo and Zuma Beach, The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts).  Whether she is captured dancing en pointe wearing only a black tutu and matching bralette, grasping at a cement wall with her muscular outstretched arms, wrapped in a scarlet red corset or photographed entirely in the nude, her elegant form, covered in multicolored brush strokes, like a canvas, Goodson’s sinewy body looks powerful, exposing both her sculpted calves and undeniable fierceness of spirit.

In front of the camera, Goodson presents as an accomplished professional dancer. She has been training for many years since she was a little girl living in New York City with her mother, Virginia McDavid- a former Miss Alabama 1953- and father, television producer Mark Goodson  who is responsible for Family Feud, The Price Is Right, Beat the Clock. Although Goodson did not end up landing a career in dance, she has always remained passionate and committed to the art form.