C.A.R.E. which stands for Creating All Rewarding Experiences, was created by Mariana Garcia ‘22 and Carolina Seixas ‘22 to enable students to not only participate and volunteer in existing community service and fundraising initiatives but to help them develop their own community service projects and non-profit organizations. Their mission statement says it all: Creating a Future by Caring for the Present. “The club serves to live by this motto by creating a platform that has the resources and tools that any student needs to be able to create their own community service project for a cause that is personal to them,” Mariana says.

Founded this school year, the club meets bi-weekly via Meet (due to COVID restrictions). The speaker sessions have guests from local or national non-profit organizations. “We see the speaker series as a wonderful source for the members. They are being inspired and getting advice from people who work with successful organizations. Members also get networking opportunities in case they want to get involved with any of them,” said Carolina. Both Mariana and Carolina organized their own community service and fundraising projects prior to starting C.A.R.E. They felt there was a need and wished there was a club when they were freshmen to assist them when they started.

The biggest piece of advice that Carolina would give to anyone who wanted to start an original community service project would be, “go for it no matter how intimidating it may be! The worst that can happen is for you to be where you started before going for it, and the best that can happen is for you to help others and support a cause you are passionate about." Mariana’s advice is just as short and direct, “Just start would be the one piece of advice I would say.  While it is short, it really does express how I feel about community service projects. Even if it’s just a brainstorming session or taking a couple minutes to reach out to an organization, if you are truly passionate about a cause the perfect time to start is right now.”

“I am so inspired by the spirit of service that Mariana and Carolina have created for other students with the creation of C.A.R.E. club. These two dynamic young ladies are leading others to show compassion and to be catalysts of change today for a better tomorrow.”

Victoria Polentas
Club Advisor
Director of College Planning and Guidance