CSU East Bay Students Make a Difference

  • October 30, 2015

Make A Difference Day
Make A Difference Day
Make A Difference Day

Cal State East Bay students fanned out across the East Bay on Oct. 24 to take part in the national Make a Difference Day. The fourth Saturday of October is the largest single day of volunteering in the United States, and Cal State East Bay has made it a tradition for more than a decade.

But this year, the university decided to expand the single day of action with several events throughout the week leading up to it. The kick-off on Oct. 20 included a keynote speech from Jakada Imani, the director of the Ignite Institute at the Pacific School of Religion, whose mission is to “train, support and inspire change-makers.” Imani encouraged students to discover what inspires them to make a difference. 

For pre-nursing sophomore Athena-Glezel Galvez that inspiration comes from sending supplies to doctors and nurses in developing countries. She, along with a few dozen other Cal State East Bay students and staff, spent Saturday morning in a MedShare warehouse in San Leandro, sorting sizes and types of medical gloves.

“Here you can just go to the store and buy gloves, but in other places, they don’t have that,” Galvez said.

Above volunteers’ heads hung dozens of flags, representing the 96 countries MedShare has served over the years. The nonprofit collects surplus supplies from local hospitals and manufacturers, sorts them into shipments, and sends them where they’re needed.

“We’ll be sending off four containers to Nigeria next week,” said Jesse Vazquez, MedShare’s Volunteer Coordinator. “But the boxes we’re packing right now? They could end up anywhere.”

A few miles south, at Hayward’s Tennyson High School, dozens more Cal State East Bay students were hard at work getting a community garden ready for winter.

“We’re taking out old plants that aren’t growing anymore and putting new ones in. Broccoli and onions and potatoes,” said Kasandra Rueda, a senior in the criminal justice program. She was taking a break in the shade, surrounded by garden beds full of herbs and vegetables. Rueda’s sorority takes part in Make a Difference Day every year, but this is the first year her sisters have taken up gardening for the event.

Project Eat runs the garden, which employs high school students and invites families from the surrounding community to adopt a box and grow whatever they like. The garden has been so successful that Project Eat has started selling some of its produce to a local restaurant, The Cannery Café.

“It’s also creating internship opportunities,” explained Project Eat’s Melissa Morris. “When students graduate from working with us they can apply to work at the Cannery Café so that they’re learning how to grow food and then learning how to work in a restaurant. It’s pretty cool.”

It’s an example of how easily volunteerism and activism can have ripple effects. Volunteers who were part of this year’s Make a Difference Day say they’ll be back, donating more of their time and energy.

“Oh yeah. I’ll be back here,” Galvez said, while scanning the boxes and bins overflowing with MedShare donations. “In the spring I’ll probably bring a group of freshmen out here for our Freshman Day of Service. I hope to be one of the student leaders for that.”  Galvez is a part of Pioneers for Change, a paid service learning leadership program that prepares students to lead the Freshmen Day of Service projects.

Back in the garden, Rueda admits community service is simply a part of her life. “Growing up I always liked to be involved, volunteering. It feels right. It feels natural. And I’ve been on the other side. It’s good knowing that people care.”

It’s quite likely that when doctors and nurses half a world away open a MedShare container they’ll share in that same comfort that comes from knowing people care. And it might just make the winter harvest from Tennyson High School’s Community Garden taste a bit sweeter, too.

Make a Difference Day events also took place on the CSUEB campus through the Bay Area Science Festival and at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward. For more information about volunteering throughout the year, visit .