Teaching Social Consciousness: Building with Books

If your high schooler's concept of raising money for a good cause means throwing change into the tip jar at Starbucks, then listen up: it's never too late to help your child develop social awareness and compassion. Just ask Jim Ziolkowski, the president of the non-profit organization Building with Books. Ziolkowski was backpacking in Nepal in 1990 when he came across a two-day inauguration ceremony of a school. Struck by how appreciative the villagers were for the opportunity to give their children access to education, he co-founded Building with Books (BwB) upon his return to the United States. Since then, the organization has built 215 schools in developing countries using, in part, funds raised by youth in the United States.

Now your teenager can get in on some of the action with BwB's on-line program. To register an on-line program go to www.buildingwithbooks.org. These programs can work for any number of kids, but the more the merrier. The BwB program is based around three core activities:

Volunteer Service

The program requires students to complete at least one service project each semester (based on a typical school year). They are free to choose the project, but it needs to be either through a non-profit organization or through their community. Tutor at an elementary school. Put on a performance at a nursing home. Serve food at a local soup kitchen. Dianne Mishra, who runs BwBs' on-line program, says a good service project is "anything that involves a relationship where they can see that they've made a difference." Mishra suggests checking out www.volunteermatch.org for more ideas in your area.

Fundraising to Build Schools

Put your high schooler in the driver's seat for this one, and let him brainstorm ways to raise money to help sponsor a school. Your child can also choose one of five countries where they would like their school to be built. This gives kids the opportunity to learn more about the country that they're sponsoring. The program asks teens complete at least one sponsorship activity a semester, but the monetary goal is up to them. Mishra says it costs between $15-17,000 to build a school. Whether your child raises $500 or $3,000 it all goes towards the building of the school, and it all counts for a whole lot.

Global Education

Your high-schooler can follow along on-line with schools being built in another country to see how his hard-earned money is being spent. A special feature of the on-line program is e-mail correspondence with people in a developing country. Questions like "What's it like to go to school there?" and "What holidays do you celebrate" are exchanged. Mishra calls it a "one-on-one sharing of culture."

What makes Building with Books special, is that it allows kids to make a difference in both their local and global community. Your teenager will soon be leaving the naivety of childhood behind--give her a headstart towards becoming a socially conscious adult.