Grads Making a Difference

If you can imagine it, you can make it happen. These people are proof.

Watching the evening news, when something upsetting is beamed into our living rooms, most of us mourn quietly and briefly, and eventually forget about it. Not Juli Kamin. When she learned of …Read more >

girl with dog image, yaps charitable organization, ngo, non-profit, landmark forum graduates making a difference

Anne Ingalls had an idea so good that she refers to it as a “divine spark.” A pediatric oncology nurse at Children’s Hospital in Denver, Ingalls experienced the pain of watching young …Read more >

movie-image man and senior on motorcycle image, gopat, non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

When New Zealander Max Vodane gave an 80-year-old woman a spin on his Harley, he had no idea he was about to launch a community project that would take off. “I visited …Read more >

natasha grossman headshot, walk a mile non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

While Natasha Grossman was studying social work and interning at a welfare-reform lobbying organization in Washington State, she saw first-hand the cultural gap that existed between welfare policy-makers and welfare recipients. “Why …Read more >

Landmark Insights blog, I love my city

On his way to the office, where P.P. Singh worked as the IT head of a British multinational, he daily encountered untamed traffic, large pot holes, garbage, and stretches of barren land. …Read more >

lead-image painting image, art+life+kenya, charitable organization, community service, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

When Austin, Texas-based architecture student Jodi Lane met Joram Githumbi, he convinced her to travel to his homeland, Kenya, to help design a school for children orphaned by the AIDS crisis. At …Read more >

operation amped non-profit organization, ngo, charitable group, landmark forum graduates making a difference

For Tom Tapp, the motivation for Operation Amped comes down to one fundamental idea: Giving others the opportunity to be and feel free. One day while watching a news report about injured …Read more >

Landmark Insights: Landmark grads making a difference -- Greenland Foundation, planting trees in Ethiopia

As a child growing up in Ethiopia, Gashaw Tahir lived in a village so dense with majestic trees he couldn’t even see the sky. But returning to Ethiopia years later he was shocked to find his country a barren land, stripped of most of its forests. Tahir’s plan: Plant more trees, put young people to work, restore community and ecosystem to his village.

Losing a mother is a defining moment for anyone. But when you’re a 16-year-old boy who’s seen his single mother succumb to breast cancer, the pain is acute. That was Nick Arquette’s …Read more >

children photo montage, love knows no bounds, non-profit org, ngo, 501c3, landmark forum graduates making a difference

Love Knows No Bounds today extends its reach to Haiti, Japan, and other areas impacted by catastrophe, and the partnership and trust with local leaders is key to what they do. “In order to provide both short-term and long-term, sustaining relief efforts, we need to create almost an alchemy,” says Scholl. “The communities…

musicians image, harmony4kidz, charitable organization, community service, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

While planning a music event in Central Park, Landmark graduate Irena Makarchuk encountered a group of children eager to spread the word about the concert. To her surprise, 200 of these children …Read more >

silk empowered logo, non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

After teaching physical fitness classes at domestic violence shelters for years, Candace Vanice realized that the hardest thing for victims of domestic violence to recover is not their physical health, but their …Read more >

girl and sewing machine image, simply help non-profit organization, ngo, community service, 501c3, landmark forum graduates making a difference

Once Tina Bow glimpsed life across the border, she knew she’d never be the same. The San Diego resident traveled to Tijuana to initiate a project designed to bring donated clothes, food, …Read more >

Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. Tell that to Tim Stevens. After rising to prominence as a jazz vocalist, writer, and producer—and having …Read more >

Like many of us, Bob Ballard didn’t know what to do whenever he saw a homeless person on the street. “I felt conflicted,” says Ballard. “Should I talk to them or avoid …Read more >

sports field image, special spectators non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

How many of us, as children, dreamed of standing in the middle of a packed sports stadium, basking in the cheers of thousands of people? When Blake Rockwell considered how he might …Read more >

rolande hodel headshot, fighting aids in africa non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

“What do I want to do with my life,” Rolande Hodel asked herself. The answer came when she attended a speech at the United Nations in which she heard about efforts to …Read more >

boy with tales from africa book, pelican post, charitable organization, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

Imagine if in your child’s classroom there weren’t enough books for the children to read together or that none of the books reflected their own life experiences or that there were no books in the school at all… This is the situation Nick Johnson found years ago while…

mural painting image, where peace lives non-profit organization, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

From an early age children are influenced with toy guns, “G.I. Joe” cartoons, and school curriculum that dwell on martial history and tools of war. But, notions of peace and conflict resolution? …Read more >

By the time she was 24, Ryll Burgin seemingly had it all—her own business, a fabulous circle of friends, and a great lifestyle. Years later, while working abroad in the USA, she …Read more >

domiciles with tin rooves image, Aid Still Required non-profit org, ngo, landmark forum graduates making a difference

Andrea Herz Payne and Hunter Payne felt out of their element at a CD-release party of a glam rocker. “I’m sitting there thinking, this is totally not our crowd,” Andrea recalls. But, …Read more >

Imagine having to wait several hours for a computer at your public library just to get your homework done. That’s exactly the plight of thousands of disadvantaged school kids across the country …Read more >