Meet Elizabeth Duhig

We recently connected with Elizabeth Duhig and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

When I started attending university, my involvement in The Ground Up Project slowed down substantially due to the physical distance to the community I had built. That distance made me compare my current self with my past self. I lamented that I could not be as active as before, when I could easily organize drives, lead in-person initiatives, and show up everywhere at once. Suddenly, even taking small actions took significantly longer than before. I felt like I wasn’t living up to the version of myself who originally founded The Ground Up Project. I began to question whether I was still ‘good enough’ to run a humanitarian initiative while balancing life as a university student.
However, I realized that leadership isn’t fixed and isn’t meant to stay the same forever. Through the unwavering support of my staff, our donors, and the encouragement I received from a public health program called Y-PHIC under the non-profit Project UNITY, I found the motivation to continue my endeavor of running The Ground Up Project. I was reminded that my value as a leader isn’t measured by proximity, but by the consistency of my purpose and my willingness to adapt.
I now understand that just because my leadership is different than before, it doesn’t mean that The Ground Up Project is less meaningful. I learned to stop comparing myself to my past or to other humanitarian initiatives, and these things have been the biggest steps in overcoming my imposter syndrome. I may be physically further away, but it doesn’t mean that The Ground Up Project is inherently worse off. We are still constantly striving to use surplus to push others up, and we will continue to do so for as long as we can.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I believe the true purpose of The Ground Up Project lies in our motto, “use your surplus to push others up”. Our purpose is to divert unused resources from the waste stream via donation drives and reallocate it to individuals and organizations who need those resources, such as food, clothing, and shoes. We run drives, host volunteer events, and have even donated internationally to fulfill this purpose. As of November 2025, we have donated about 4,300 pounds of humanitarian aid to various organizations in San Diego, Los Angeles, Tijuana, Bangladesh, and Hanoi. These resources that would have otherwise contributed to the growing global waste problem.
I believe The Ground Up Project is special because we are simultaneously big and small. While sending humanitarian aid to different countries, such as Mexico, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, we are also hyper-sensitive to the needs of the region we are in. Our most recent large-scale example of this is the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025. For the entire duration of that fire, my staff and I worked tirelessly collecting donations, processing them, and sending them off with our volunteers. Instead of running away from the flames, our drivers drove directly towards it out of nothing but sheer compassion for the people affected by the fires. This determination and courage is what keeps The Ground Up Project going, and I will always be grateful for our volunteer network, as they never fail to show up and help us in our mission. Throughout the month that those fires burned, we ended up collecting and distributing 400lbs of humanitarian aid, with donations coming in from as far as San Francisco.
Another point that I would like to mention is that The Ground Up Project is entirely youth and student led. I was 15 when I created The Ground Up Project, and at the time, our oldest staff member was 16. Now, albeit my staff and I have grown up, we still believe in the power of the youth, and that their voices should be heard. Because of this, a lot of our volunteers are members of the youth, as we believe every child who wants to make a difference, should have the opportunity to do so. Even now, we are still trying to partner with local high schools to ensure that The Ground Up Project is a space for the youth to make an impact.
As for our recent activities, we ran a toy drive for a local hospital in July and August 2025. Then, we had a few volunteer events to sort through miscellaneous donations and send them to relevant organizations before I left for university.
Furthermore, in October 2025, we successfully sent clothing donations to a Haitian refugee community at an international location. We did not post about it on our Instagram, and we will not disclose their location to respect the privacy of the refugees. I would like to thank The Ground Up Project staff Dede and Aranza as well as Aranza’s father for helping make this happen, as I was in university when the clothing donations were sent. The Ground Up Project does not run on the notion of getting anything in return, but rather in genuinely helping others.
We do not strive for praise, but for positive impact on any given community in need. For our future plans, we are running a book drive in December 2025, and we plan to run a food drive in early 2026 for the people who were affected by the halt of benefits from SNAP. Overall, despite my physical distance, we will still continuously strive to live up to our motto of purpose of compassion.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Three qualities that are the most impactful in The Ground Up Project’s journey are compassion, collaboration, and grit.
For one, compassion is the entire foundation of The Ground Up Project. Without compassion, what would inspire my staff to participate in The Ground Up Project’s volunteer events? What would inspire the general public to participate in our drives and volunteer events? Without compassion, how could The Ground Up Project exist in the first place?
In terms of collaboration, about half of our drives have been done with partner organizations. Furthermore, the state-wide clothing drive that The Ground Up Project conducted in early 2024 was in collaboration with a school club in the Bay Area and a humanitarian initiative in the Los Angeles area. That drive raised about 3,500 pounds of clothing, with The Ground Up Project raising about 500 pounds of that. Without them, that drive would have stayed limited to San Diego and would have made less of an impact.
Lastly, the grit to not give up is something integral in keeping The Ground Up Project afloat. In everything that we do, it doesn’t matter how tired we are, we will always keep moving forward. This collective attitude of perseverance has allowed The Ground Up Project to survive the new situation of its founder being in university and away from The Ground Up Project’s community.
This all culminates to The Ground Up Project still thriving and making a positive impact to anyone and everyone The Ground Up Project can reach, and I hope for this to remain true for as long as possible.
For someone early in their journey of starting any large project, I believe the best advice I can give is to keep your head in the game no matter what. You will experience A lot of failure until you get it right, you will be told no a lot, but you mustn’t give up; you must persevere. Stay determined to fulfill your goals but also be kind to yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for every failure that happens, a lot of them aren’t personal. Overall, have the courage to put yourself out there, and don’t be afraid to fall down, but pick yourself up and keep going.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

In terms of The Ground Up Project, I believe that I have improved in my adaptability and perseverance. Since moving away to university, running The Ground Up Project has become more challenging because I am no longer physically present all the time. However, over the course of this first term of university, I have learned to adapt to this new situation and rise above it in order to continue running drives and events from afar. Another point I would like to mention is the improvement of my perseverance; I no longer lament failed collaborations as much as I used to. This is because I realized the more time I take to sulk, the less time I am using to make another drive that will be successful. Overall, over these last twelve months I have learned to be okay with things failing, as long as I am able to fix it. While I acknowledge past mistakes, I do not let it define me. Instead, I learn from it, and continue my endeavors wiser and prepared to make a positive impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tgupsd.org/
• Instagram: thegroundupprojectsd