Inspiring Detroit Students with the Message "College Matters"

Winter break is a time for relaxing, which means community service for some students. Anna Sun, a senior at Detroit Country Day School hosted her third college gear donation event on Friday, February 22 at the Detroit Institute of Arts, where the Detroit Chess Club members were practicing for their upcoming Chess Tournament. Over 80 K-12 students participated in the event.

After recently partnering with the Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation, Anna realized that education is essential for kids from underprivileged families to get out of their current situations. So, she wrote a code in Google Scripts to send personalized emails out to 6000+ universities soliciting t-shirts and other items to help inspire local kids. She has received hundreds of packages containing t-shirts, pamphlets, pens and even toothbrushes from hundreds of colleges across the country. She then brought the items to students at Detroit (Detroit Chess Club) and Chicago (Youth Options UnlimitedYOU) to encourage these young members to go to college. During the event, Anna was happy to see the students eagerly discussing the pamphlets and learning more about college. She hopes that by receiving free gear from colleges like the University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University, the students would be inspired to work towards a goal and their dream college. Since last August, Anna has hosted three college gear donation events and over 200 1st generation college students in Detroit and Chicago participated in these events.

Anna is a co-founder and director of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable youth organization - The Little Stars Foundation (www.thelittlestars.org). The mission is to help local children and seniors, and ultimately enrich lives in our community.