BuildOn is an incredible non-profit which helps create schools in “some of the economically poorest countries around the world,” according to its website. Astonishingly, the change-making organization builds a school every three days. This organization reaches out to colleges to raise funds and University of Delaware’s chapter is a strong part of the BuildOn community.
We spoke to UD’s BuildOn president, Julia Ross, about her experience with the non-profit and goals for Delaware’s chapter in the future.
When asked to share her favorite parts about leading such a community, Ross shared a few words. “My favorite part about leading BuildOn at UD is the fact that I get to stand behind a mission that I care so much about. As an organization, we are highly committed to our mission of breaking the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education.” The organization’s chapter president also shared that the BuildOn team at UD works very well together. “We work as a team to self-fundraise our trek to build a primary school in one of seven underdeveloped countries, hold fun events, have weekly meetings and also weekly service opportunities,” Ross added. “I love that I get to work along with my executive board members to be the driving force and motivator of our team’s events, fundraising, meetings and overall accomplishments!”
The organization has accomplished a great deal and the president shared the following remarks about these accomplishments: “I think the actual construction of the schools have been our biggest accomplishments. We have successfully built multiple schools in Nicaragua, Senegal and Burkina Faso! Seeing how hard our students work on the worksites is inspiring. Though it is not our only accomplishment, it is our biggest challenge.” Fundraising is a challenge that BuildOn faces on a daily basis. Ross shared, “Our biggest challenge this semester has definitely been fundraising. We have a short time to finish raising our $38,000 to construct our next school in Senegal! Sometimes when you’re raising such a huge amount, it’s easy to get discouraged. I helped my team stay motivated by giving them different ways to fundraise and individualizing my leadership approach. We are very close to reaching our goal and I believe we will be able to reach it within the coming weeks. I am proud of the entire team for taking their fundraising efforts as seriously as possible! If you’d like to help reach our goal, please consider visiting this link!”
The president also spoke with Her Campus about the future of BuildOn at the University of Delaware. She remarked, “My two goals for my presidency were to increase the club size, as well as expand the local service opportunities. I think we have already successfully doubled in size compared to last semester, which is great! I plan to focus on expanding the service aspect of our organization next semester, as soon as we have completed our fundraising for trek!” Ross also shared that the chapter “has around 40 members. We have 10 people on the executive board, 10 people on this year’s trek team, and the rest are general members! If you’d like to join, feel free to check us out on Student Central!”