One fine day in late September last year, I suddenly realized that for the past two months I had been completely lost in the madness of getting an MBA education. I hadn’t taken the time out to give a second look at my surroundings. My world was getting crowded with cases, case competitions, recruiting events, and some more recruiting events ….
The first two questions I asked myself were – What do I know about C’ville outside of school and what am I doing for the community that I live in? I, sure, had waxed eloquent about giving back to the community in my b-school application essays! A quick run through the clubs at Darden helped me decide on Building Goodness in April (BGiA) because it is the organization that in the larger scheme of things, arguably, creates the greatest impact. The three overarching goals for BGiA are:
1) To rehabilitate the houses of low-income residents, particularly the elderly and disabled, so that they can continue to live in warmth, safety, and independence;
2) To foster the spirit of volunteerism among individuals; and
3) To promote a sense of community within the Charlottesville-Albemarle County area.
Having designed buildings for a career, I felt I could definitely provide a lot of value to the effort. We started by requesting referrals for prospective houses from local non-profits like Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, and the City Government. With a solid list of prospective houses, we split into four teams of two each to cover different parts of the City. Here began the fun part! Calling homeowners and explaining what BGiA meant, that if selected they do not have to actually pay to get their houses fixed, setting up a time to inspect the houses and finally getting the inspection done. Meeting and interacting with these people was for me the highlight of this effort. They all needed help and they all had a great attitude and warm smile to greet us. The needs of houses vary greatly – from leaking roofs, cracked decks, peeled paint, broken plumbing to a handicap ramp. We devoted a few weekends to inspection and by January we had finalized ten houses based on their needs and our capabilities.
Talking of capabilities, we will work with a group of local contractors who will provide construction expertise. Construction equipment and materials are bought through funds raised via donations and the BGiA in-class and online auctions held in Quarter 2.
Currently, we are working with the students who have volunteered to be house captains, providing them logistics and operations support. Each house has three house captains who will work with contractors and collectively lead almost 200 volunteers to repair the 10 houses on Build Day, 4th of April this year. The amount of enthusiasm and support for the cause within the student community has been alarming and beyond expectations so far. House captains have diligently started independent house visits and volunteer recruiting activities. We, as the managing committee of BGiA, are devoted to give enough independence and support to make build day a satisfying experience for the volunteers.
I will give you an update as Build Day draws closer.
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3 comments:
Sameer, the work you're doing for BGIA sounds like fun... it's so great that you're able to devote time to something like this in the midst of all the chaos that is our daily life.
Sameer, Its great that you are outting time its community work. Apart from the obvious satisfaction, It helps a great deal in keeping a broader perspective while at Darden.
How's the summer? Where are you?? We need some updates! ;)
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