By Blake Hollingsworth | Reporter
After founding an organization helping his high school classmates find volunteer opportunities, San Antonio junior Alan Koroluk decided to provide the same opportunity for Baylor students.
Take Action Volunteer, or TAV, is a student-run, nonprofit organization looking to “inspire a world where students unite through purposeful volunteerism, creating a ripple effect of positive change,” according to its website.
Koroluk founded TAV in 2020 to provide volunteer opportunities for his high school classmates during the pandemic. He said he was inspired by his own difficulty meeting the National Honor Society’s volunteer hour requirements.
“Because of quarantine restrictions in the pandemic, it was super difficult to get any hours,” the junior said. “And so I thought to myself, ‘Why couldn’t I just connect the businesses to the school directly?’”
Now, TAV hopes to extend its impact to the Waco community by starting a new chapter at the Waco Independent School District, along with developing a university-level internship program, Koroluk said.
Furthermore, TAV emphasizes the importance of giving any high school student a chance to help others, regardless of background.
“We believe that the youth sets forward our tomorrow,” Koroluk said. “We really want to include everybody. It doesn’t matter what background you have or where you come from. TAV is a central hub for any student to become something better for themselves.”
As a result, TAV became one of the few San Antonio nonprofits offering remote volunteer hours by partnering with Tallo, a platform matching students with career opportunities, according to Koroluk.
TAV vice president Antonio Soberón, a first-year MBA candidate from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, shared how the organization helped disabled children make friends during the pandemic.
“We set up zoom calls every week because during the pandemic, they couldn’t really go anywhere,” Soberón said. “Also, kids who are disabled are not really sociable, so that was a way for us to just be with them during that hard time.”
Students also contributed remotely by making pillowcases for children in hospitals near San Antonio through TAV’s partnership with Ryan’s Case For Smiles.
Soberón believes such volunteer work is a rewarding experience for students.
“You create joy in other people’s lives, and I feel like that’s something that a lot of people really cherish,” Soberón said.
TAV also hosted a school supply donation drive for kids in Mexico, collecting items like backpacks, pens, pencils and notebooks.
“Some families could now buy groceries because we provided them with school supplies,” Koroluk said. “The fact that we could bless them was really beautiful to see. It really motivated us to keep going to do more good.”
Soberón — who lives at the border of the U.S. and Mexico — found this endeavor to be particularly meaningful, sharing his firsthand experience witnessing the poverty immigrant families face.
“I cross through the border whenever I’m back home, and I see so many kids at stoplights doing simple tricks with two balls in order to get five pesos just to buy some food,” Soberón said. “Some of these kids can’t even go to school because they need to provide themselves with money. These are kids that are six, seven years old.”
As part of the program, Baylor students will mentor and manage high school TAV chapters and integrate the values they have learned throughout college, according to Koroluk. Applications for Baylor students to participate are planned to be released next semester.
According to Bakersfield, Calif. senior and TAV treasurer Jacqueline Benshoof, the program is great way for Baylor students to get volunteer experience.
“The opportunity to get connected and volunteer with organizations with TAV gives them access to role models and mentorship opportunities that they might not have had in the past,” Benshoof said.
