As a five-year-old attending his first guitar lessons, Lawrence was not conscious that his humble beginning in music would also be his beginning in philanthropy. After almost two decades of classical training in the guitar, mandolin, piano and extensive experience in electronic mediums as well, Lawrence learned more than technique - he experienced music’s ability to unite people in a common experience. The realization that something as familiar to his everyday experience as music could be extended to inspire others to rally around a larger cause has become central to Lawrence’s personal philosophy.

Lawrence also attributes much of his personality and future goals to his mixed ethnicity -- his lack of association with either American or Filipino cultures. He consequently defines himself as a citizen of the world. With this arises a deep acknowledgement of his duty to aid in the assistance of the developing world.

Growing up, Lawrence remembers his parents’ participation in medical missions to the Philippines and further philanthropic endeavors on the local as well as the global stage. In high school Lawrence got his first opportunity to lead an aid project in the developing world as the President of the Young Filipinos of Pittsburgh (YFP). During his term he orchestrated fundraising to build an artesian well at a school in a Filipino village devastated by the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. When he visited the site of the well, he was greeted by young children with faces as happy as those in developed nations, despite their hindrances. This was contradicting to images of the stereotypical starving and dying child that is most often used to portray developing nations. Although he didn’t fully understand it at the time, this eye opening experience taught him an important lesson as to why it is the duty of the advantaged to help lessen the gap in living conditions throughout the world.

In 2004, Lawrence graduated from the University of Pittsburgh. Pursuing his goal of becoming a physician, he gained research and clinical patient experience by working in the Clinical Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the University of Pittsburgh for three years. Also during this post-college period, he became involved with the Allegheny County Medical Society Alliance’s (ACMSA) Henry the Hand International Project. This project teaches children the importance of hand washing, disease prevention, and other sanitation issues. As the chairman, he helped organize the first mission to southern Brazil. There he saw the same joyful faces of children that he saw in the Philippines years ago. It was then that he fully realized that it was not the aid being brought to them that gave them happiness, but the innocence of life itself that we all share. This interconnectivity is where WEL is born. While in Brazil, then pledged to do something more before his next international mission. That vow was the very beginnings of WEL. Wanting to spread awareness and consciousness of the painfully simple yet overabundant issues that plague the global community, he turned to an overlooked source for help. As an active DJ in the Pittsburgh electronic music community, Lawrence uses the club nights and music events in the city to become his podium to spread knowledge and motivate people to act. As a current graduate student at Georgetown University, he hopes to further extend WEL’s resources and capabilities.