This year marks the second year that the McCombs School has required every freshman to log four hours of community service during their first semester. The student who logged the most hours this year is a BHP student, Don Dao. Don logged 135 hours volunteering with various groups from Austin Pets Alive to Easter Seals. Don had an additional motivation as he is In the Maverick Program for Texas Wranglers, a program which also requires community service.
Don has always been an active volunteer and spent many hours volunteering for Sunflower Mission, an organization based in Houston, in high school. The group organizes fundraisers to support mission trips to Vietnam and they also work to build schools in impoverished areas in Vietnam. Don logged hours for this organization during the fall by helping them to organize their fundraisers and editing annual reports and other materials for them.
In Austin, his favorite group to work with was Austin Pets Alive. He greatly enjoyed spending time with the animals. This is only the second year that McCombs has had this requirement and the idea was spearheaded by a BHP senior, Amy Enrione. Don said he really likes this requirement.
“It encourages students to serve the community more,” he said. “It is important to give back and serve your communities in school and over the course of your life, and this is a good start for that.”
McCombs freshmen volunteered a total of 2,244 hours this semester and had an impact of $50,609 on the community. BHP students volunteered 642 of those hours. Don and his peer group enjoyed lunch with BHP Faculty Director Robert Prentice as a reward for being the group who logged the most service hours.