buildOn Congratulates President Obama

It is an honor to serve as an Honorary Board Member for such an effective organization...buildOn connects with the instinct for empathy that is innate in youth, and translates it into projects that improve lives in poor, largely forgotten corners of the world." - President Barack Obama

As a former community organizer, President Obama supports buildOn's goal to help students throughout the U.S. become leaders within their own communities and around the world. President Barack Obama, became involved with buildOn when he was honored at buildOn's Partnership for Hope Breakfast in May of 2006 in Chicago, IL. After attending the event and hearing first hand the incredible stories of buildOn students in his home town, President Obama joined buildOn's Board of Directors in an honorary capacity.

This past September, at the Service Nation Presidential Forum at Columbia University, President Obama touted the virtues of respect, compassion and responsibility, buildOn's core values, while reiterating the importance of instilling these values in American youth.

"Part of what makes America work," President Obama said, "is the fact that we believe in individual responsibility and self-reliance, but we also believe in mutual responsibility, in neighborliness, in a sense that we are committed to something larger than ourselves." Obama continued, "One way of making sure that we encourage this kind of citizenship is to start early, to make sure that our young people in high school have community service opportunities...we want every young person around this country to recognize they will not fulfill their full potential until they hitch their wagon to something bigger."

buildOn students are answering President Obama's call to usher in a new era of active citizenship. Every week buildOn students are working in their communities, helping the homeless, tutoring children, cleaning up their neighborhoods, realizing that through commitment they are changing lives - including their own. In the last school year, buildOn members across the country contributed more than 109,605 hours of volunteer service to their communities, touching the lives of thousands of people.

Through buildOn' service learning and global education, American youth from the Bronx, NY to Chicago's Southside to Oakland, California are transforming their own lives and impacting their neighbors in a positive way.