Doing Good, at BU and Around the World
Student Union treasurer Michael Wurth (CAS’11) is cofounder of a nonprofit that helps African countries
Michael Wurth gives much of his time to the BU community — he’s treasurer of the Student Union, programming manager of BU Central, and a member of the Boston University College Republicans.
But he believed he could do something for the global community, and this summer Wurth (CAS’11) went to Ghana to volunteer with United Students for Africa, a nonprofit he cofounded with his sister, Janie Wurth, a freshman at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, Wash.
Their organization sends students on humanitarian trips to developing nations in Africa; their mission is to encourage students to engage in world issues and to fight against stereotypes based on race, religion, and gender.
This summer, the group’s first trip, to Ghana, was to volunteer at an orphanage and to help build a community center. On the organization’s blog, Wurth and the other group leaders wrote about their daily experiences, which included purchasing much-needed supplies for the community with the money they had raised and attending meetings with community leaders. “We came here with the intent to help as many people as possible,” they wrote, “but we have far exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of this trip.”
United Students for Africa is entirely student-run and brings in money through fundraisers and requests to corporations.
Wurth describes the trip to Ghana as a life-changing experience and hopes that future volunteers will feel the same. “I’ve found that the best way to learn about yourself is to learn about others,” he says, “so I really hope other students achieve this through working with United Students for Africa.”
Amy Laskowski can be reached at amlaskow@bu.edu.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.