Our Story

Students helping students, an ocean apart.

GIFTEd is a youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in Tenafly, New Jersey, built on the belief that every child deserves the tools to learn.

Why We Exist

A pencil and a notebook shouldn't decide a child's future. We exist to close that gap, one school, one student, one supply box at a time.

How It Started

From a classroom in New Jersey to classrooms across the world.

We're a group of high school students from Tenafly, NJ who saw a disparity between our neighboring areas, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in particular, and realized a more steep difference between our countries of origin. Being students ourselves, we wanted to help those less fortunate with this endeavour: we wanted to organize events to raise money and launch an initiative to change the world so the future generation, too, can get not only an opportunity, but the right to learn!

Help us in our initiative today.

See Our Impact
The GIFTEd youth team
The GIFTEd youth team
2025 Founded in Tenafly

Behind the Scenes

Our process

The GIFTEd team working together

Step 01

We stay connected

We start by working our emails and staying connected. Communication is key.

UBELAND New York, a GIFTEd fundraising event

Step 02

We host events

Community gatherings, performances, and fundraisers that turn a room full of people into supply boxes.

A student in the Liloan Tabla community

Step 03

The school gets funded

The money becomes supplies, and the supplies reach the classroom we set out to help.

Giving back locally

Step 04

We give back locally

We finish where we started, giving back to our own community here at home.

The Philippines Connection

Why Cebu First?

Their story made its way to Sean's family in the Philippines. They wanted to help, but financially they couldn't. That was the moment it stopped being abstract for us, and their notions moved us to start our donations there.

Liloan Tabla Elementary School sits in the Division of Cebu Province, a community where school supplies are a real financial burden for many families. We started here because we can see exactly where every dollar lands, in a box, in a backpack, in a classroom.

A classroom at Liloan Tabla Elementary School

Photo

Liloan Tabla Elementary, classroom exterior.

Students studying together

Photo

Students at work in the classroom.

Pencils and school supplies

Photo

Supply box contents.

Notebooks and writing supplies

Photo

Notebooks ready to ship.

Cebu

Province, Philippines, the region where our current partner school sits.

490+

Students enrolled at Liloan Tabla, every one of them our goal to reach.

A student writing in a notebook

We're not waiting until we're adults to do something that matters. The gap is real right now, so we're closing it right now.

, The GIFTEd Student Team

Meet the Board

Our board of executives.

Michael LoCurcio, MD, FACP

Principal Officer

Michael LoCurcio, MD, FACP

John D. Hall, MD, FACP

Board Member

John D. Hall, MD, FACP

Maria Teresa Florida

Board Member

Maria Teresa Florida

Meet the Youth Group

Our youth officers.

Every officer role below is filled by a student, supervised by our board of executives.

Luka Hernandez

Chief Technology Officer

Luka Hernandez

Builds GIFTEd's digital presence, from this website to our social channels. Currently interning at Anthropic.

Rayhan Verma

Chief Financial Officer

Rayhan Verma

Supports events, outreach, and getting the mission in front of new people.

Sean Locurcio

Chief Executive Officer

Sean Locurcio

Leads GIFTEd's vision, partnerships, and fundraising strategy.

Ruvi Khanin

Founding Financial Advisor

Ruvi Khanin

Manages GIFTEd's finances and makes sure every dollar raised reaches its intended mission. Outside GIFTEd he works at Playa Bowls, where he handles the register and the closing count.

Daniel Han

Chief Marketing & Design Officer

Daniel Han

Leads event strategy and designs GIFTEd's visual identity, promoting the mission through graphics and campaigns.

Want to be part of the story?

Whether you donate, attend an event, or spread the word, you're helping a student somewhere open a box of possibility.

Get Involved