Last Thursday, President Obama donated his $1.4 million Nobel Peace Prize award to ten charities, six of which directly support higher education for traditionally underserved groups.

One of them is College Summit, an organization I have spent part of the last six summers volunteering for as both a writing coach and director of college counseling.  As reported in the Christian Science Monitor:

Students and teachers cried with delight as soon as they heard news of the donation to College Summit, says J.B. Schramm, founder and CEO of the Washington-based group. It plans to divvy up the $125,000 gift among the 12 states where it has 170 partner high schools.

Teens at these schools are identified as peer leaders and then attend summer workshops that help them apply for college and financial aid. They’re often the first in their family to consider college, and they learn how to share what they’ve gained with fellow high-schoolers.

“What our students heard is that the president is saying, you’re not just a vessel to get education poured into you; you can drive the change in your own community,” Mr. Schramm says.

Few organizations that I have volunteered with have made as great an impact on me as College Summit.  The beauty is, the program isn’t even for those kids with straight A’s.  It’s for those B and C kids who are capable of succeeding in college but don’t have the support to get there. PBS did a very nice job highlighting it just a few years ago.  These kids we work with, then turn around and help their fellow classmates.  It’s the kind of ripple effect you don’t hear about often enough at the kinds of under-resourced schools College Summit typically works with.

And you don’t have to be a college counselor to volunteers.  Hundreds of people volunteer each year for a weekend as writing coaches whereby they help kids find their stories and share them with admissions officers around the country. If you’re interested, learn more here.  The work, while never easy, is always rewarding.  Like the Peace Corps, “It’s the toughest job you’ll ever love.”