New Organization at SHU

Worldwide 900 million people cannot read or write. Without the ability to read and write, a lot of hope is lost for the future. Without the ability to know about the world, how could you ever believe in something? Build on is a Global Service Learning Program that focuses on helping people get educated all over the world. The group’s founder Jim Ziolkowski came to Siena Heights University last year which encouraged the students to start a Siena Heights chapter of BuildOn. Ziolkowski started BuildOn when he stumbled upon a party in Nepal. A small village in Nepal was celebrating the new school they had just built. The excitement of the villagers inspired Jim to help underdeveloped countries around the world put up new schools, to become educated and empowered. BuildOn is now an organization at our school that is looking for new members. Their first meeting was Wednesday September 16, and although the next meeting’s date is still undetermined it will be sometime within the next couple of weeks. The Siena Height’s chapter of BuildOn is led by President Madison Phillips and the faculty advisor is Ian Bell. At the first meeting, Ian Bell captured the mission of BuildOn in a simple sentence, “The point of BuildOn is about establishing an attitude and mindset of service to people both locally and abroad.”

BuildOn works in a very organized way. In your community you are responsible for servicing those around you as much as you can by volunteering. In the meantime, your other responsibility is to raise donations, by selling coffee or by using your personalized BuildOn donation page. After enough money is raised, a trip to Nicaragua will be scheduled that will allow students to help build the foundations of a new school. Starting a new school is one of the biggest key factors of BuildOn. When you move to the community you will be helping, you start building the school with the local people, and the local people finish the school. By allowing the local villagers to finish the school it gives them a sense of empowerment. When the school is finished by the village it will give them the ability to say, “I built the school that my son or daughter will go to and learn.” If you find yourself interested in BuildOn and visiting the website, you will see inspiring statements such as, “For over two decades BuildOn has engaged school communities in breaking the cycle of poverty, literacy, and low expectations by building primary schools alongside villagers in the developing world. The impact is profound and sustainable for both the rural villagers and the trek participants.” If you’re interested in helping the world around you and the world away from you, joining BuildOn is certainly worth looking into. Madison Phillips and Ian Bell would gladly talk to you about the impact you can make because “BuildOn is not a charity. It is a movement.”