Student Volunteer Project Goes Virtual

The ongoing pandemic has been particularly tough for nonprofit organizations that rely on face-to-face interactions, such as the after-school centers operated by Dallas ISD. Over the past few summers, Shreyan Daulat ’23 has volunteered at these centers in South Dallas until the pandemic brought that work to a halt. Determined to continue helping the community, Shreyan created The Buckner Project, an organization that creates educational videos by upper school students for DISD elementary students. 

“We hope that by making educational, curriculum, and life-skills videos, we can make an impact on the DISD elementary community,” Shreyan said. “We can’t wait to see how much progress we can make in the future.”

The organization worked over the past summer to create preliminary curriculum and test out different video platforms. The videos cover five main subjects: financial literacy, civics, environmental education, health and wellness, and STEM. The Buckner Project produces five videos per week, which it sends to DISD to review and distribute to their schools.

“Dallas ISD is very excited by the fact that we’re student-led and student-run,” said Keshav Krishna ’23, co-founder of the organization. “Our classes aren’t normally taught or even considered as topics that kids should learn. In those two ways, we’re pretty unique.”

With help from fellow Marksmen like Keshav and faculty advisor Harrison Tassopoulos ’07, the project has grown to include students from Hockaday and Greenhill. 

“What drew me to helping support the project was just seeing Shreyan and Keshav’s passion for the work and commitment to seeing their idea begin to come to reality, especially when the focus is centered on helping the Dallas community,” Mr. Tassopoulos said.

“You can't help others by being passive,” said Christian Youst ’23 who is in charge of environmental education for the project. “You must take some initiative and be active to help not only others but the community as a whole.” 

The project is named after Buckner Boulevard in eastern and southern Dallas, where several of the project’s beneficiary schools are located. The Buckner Project is in the process of developing a website and registering for nonprofit status to further enhance their relationship with DISD.