The entire LaunchPad family is proud to support Emma Rothman ’21 (Falk), former LaunchPad Global Fellow, Rubin Family Innovation Mentor and Hunter Brooks Watson Scholar, and now a memoirist, on the publication of her new book: Things My Therapist Doesn’t Want Me to Say, Ten Years Post Heart Transplant. We invite you to join us in supporting her crowdfunding campaign to help with the publication. We encourage you to contribute here by April 30 to help achieve this amazing accomplishment.
Emma, now a part-time behavioral health counselor in Chicago, IL, is focused on the intersection of healthcare for kids and healthy food systems. She is also purposeful about finding a balance between seeking every opportunity possible and valuing the present moment.
Emma knew at an early age that she wanted to make an impact on her community and on other people. She honed these skills as a young heart transplant recipient, co-founder of a nonprofit organization (Hearts for Emma) as a high school student, and most recently as a social impact entrepreneur at Syracuse University.
She says that for a long time, she knew that writing a book about her heart transplant was an important part of her journey but was nervous about starting the project. During her senior year of college, Emma took classes that challenged beliefs about how she thought of herself, her transplant, and the relationships in her life. She also met other LaunchPad alumni authors like Randy Ginsburg who published Adversity to Advantage and helped her see a pathway to publication.
Emma’s ten-year heart transplant anniversary was April 1, 2021, just a month before graduating from Syracuse University. While she thought she would be done with healing from her life-saving heart transplant at the age of 12, she realized she was just coming to terms with a new identity and a new life without the structure of being a student. That acceptance and the lessons learned are at the center of a story about not knowing what is next.
Emma has always been of the belief that it takes a village. The LaunchPad is her village, and her forever family. We invite you to help her tell her story and share it with others who are also on a healing journey.
“Living truthfully is hard,” says Emma. “I give myself grace now and am hoping by the end of the book you will too.”
The crowd funding will help support pre-orders to cover costs for publishing the first edition of her book. Here are the funding goals:
Tier 1: $6,500, the eBook/softcover editions get published
Tier 2: $7,500, the book will get a hardcover edition
Tier 3: $8,000, the book will get a hardcover and audiobook edition
Join us in supporting Emma on her storytelling journey. We are so proud of her.
Learn more about Emma, her book, and how to contribute here:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/things-my-therapist-doesn-t-want-me-to-say#/