Kari Foley

Kari Foley, a senior at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, not only quotes Mother Teresa—“Love has to be put into action and that action has to be service”—she’s taken her advice to heart. Besides playing softball and tennis and being president of both her junior and senior class, she’s built a resumé that takes most people a lifetime to accomplish.

In 2004, Foley volunteered for Volunteers of America. As a youth team captain, she seeks out, recruits, and organizes people and projects. The position became a springboard for her biggest project to date: coordinating a drive to help an alternative middle school. She surveyed teachers and students about their needs—“They were asking for the simplest things,” she says. “It baffles me how we allow kids to go to school in the winter without a jacket on.” Then she collected the goods by asking neighbors for help. “There were bags and bags outside my door in the mornings,” she says. She distributed gifts, and, to celebrate, threw a pizza party.

But she doesn’t always need an organization to motivate her. When a good friend found out he had testicular cancer and asked her and her sister Sarah for help, they organized a three-on-three basketball tournament with a silent auction, T-shirts, and prizes, and raised $10,000. “We were supergiddy [about the money]. It was really rewarding, something tangible.”

There’s more. For two years, she’s been involved with St. David’s Child Development and Family Services, an organization that pairs volunteers with the mentally challenged. She works with a fifteen-year-old who is unable to speak, yet she says she has learned volumes about communication from him. “He’s gone through so much, but he’s the happiest kid,” she says. “He’s opened up my eyes. It’s hard, but it’s also a blessing.”

For Benilde-St. Margaret’s Volunteer Corps, she’s worked at the school’s day care center and at Courage Center and stocked prison food shelves. She’s a member of Knightlife, a group at school, which hosts activities to keep students drug- and alcohol-free.

“It’s a feeling inside, that you’re actually meant to be here on Earth and do something,” she says. “It pushes me to do more, so my life is meaningful.”