60 Faces of NCSY

Often, a person has no idea of the impact he or she has made on someone else. 60 Faces of NCSY was created to change that. The people we feature every day were nominated by NCSY alumni and NCSYers to express gratitude to someone that inspired them.

Ari Hoffman

Seattle Director

Written and nominated by Joshua Gladstein, NCSY Alumnus

As my NCSY Director, Ari embodied Seattle NCSY. No matter if it was in NCSY board meetings or at thursday night hang outs, Ari was always around to talk with and help with any problems. He would call when you were sick and take us Go-Karting when we were bored. But when I really think of who Ari is, one story comes to mind. When I was a sophomore in high school my best friend’s 13 year old brother passed away and the entire community came together. I remember seeing Ari at the funeral and he asked me if I was going to be ok. I told him we had to do something about this, that I couldn’t just sit at home that night. So Ari set it up so that we could learn that night and got someone else from the community to come and give us a chance to film our feelings and memories of our friend. That night 40 of us showed up to learn and share our feelings, and without Ari none of that could have been possible.

This is simply one of many stories where Ari has gone beyond the line of duty to help take care of us and make sure that we are ok.

Ari is still one of my closest friends after graduating high school, and I am beyond excited to work for him as an advisor this coming year. Ari is my hometown hero and a role model to everyone around him.

Ari inspires me to want to help the next generation of high school teens make the right decisions going forward in life, and all around an A-class guy.