Grad students spend 100+ hours "making a difference"

By Lindsey Anderson

Kogod graduate students will have volunteered over 100 hours to improve their community with the “Kogod Making a Difference is Our Business” program by the end of the 2010-2011 academic year. Since the popular program began in 2008, Kogod graduate volunteers have contributed over 300 hours of service.

Kogod Leadership and Applied Business (K-LAB) launched “The Making a Difference is Our Business” program to provide graduate students with at least one opportunity a month to volunteer at a local nonprofit. Students have served in all four quadrants of the District of Columbia, working with organizations like DC Central Kitchen, Washington Senior Home and Hospice, Loaves and Fishes, Washington Parks & People, and the Ronald McDonald House.

Students have devoted themselves to job training programs, environmental development, alleviating hunger and homelessness, and providing companionship to diverse age groups, while getting to know each other and members of the D.C. community.

“The last time I volunteered at Loaves and Fishes serving food to homeless and low income individuals, a lady sang a song for us as a form of gratitude,” an international MSA student and return volunteer said. “She wanted to thank us for volunteering and I was moved to tears; that’s why I decided to volunteer again. It is really a rewarding experience.”

For more information about the Making a Difference is Our Business program, contact Allison Holcomb at klab@american.edu.