Mollie Shapiro isn’t just interested in helping the community before she graduates in May: She wants to remain in Binghamton and continue to make a difference.
“I’ve only been here for two years and I don’t feel like I’m finished yet,” said Shapiro, a 23-year-old human development major from Saratoga Springs. “I’ve talked to people in the community and they say, ‘We really need young people to stay. We need fresh ideas and young minds to help revitalize the economy.’ I want to do that. I want to help this community.”
Shapiro has been active on and off campus since transferring from Adirondack Community College in the fall of 2009. She serves as vice president of the Human Development Association, treasurer of the Women’s Student Union and as a mentor in the Johnson City Mentor Program. Shapiro also works 20 hours a week as a personal aide for two people with physical and mental disabilities.
Shapiro’s latest project came out of a Proseminar in Civic Entrepreneurship class that examined ways to keep Binghamton University students in the area after graduation. Each student came up with a plan detailing how the community and campus can work together. Shapiro’s recommendation: A Student United Way.
“It’s a matter of getting the name out there and getting people interested because there are so many student groups on campus,” said Shapiro, who met other Student United Way leaders last fall during a retreat in Washington, D.C.
Interest in a Student United Way has been strong since Shapiro formed the group this semester. An initial meeting drew more than 40 people and Shapiro has leaders in place to keep the group active after she graduates.
While the group’s short-term goals are to make community connections, Shapiro already has a long-term goal in place: improving literacy rates in the community.
“Part of my personal project is going to the Boys & Girls Club of Western Broome, where they have a room filled floor to ceiling with boxes of books – teen books unorganized and mixed together,” she said. “We are going to take the books out, organize them and make a reading room with beanbag chairs and spaces where students can read. It will be like a library to them.”
Shapiro is also interested in helping her fellow students. She is an intern at the new Transfer Student Initiatives Office and uses her own experiences to ease the transition for new transfer students.
“Meeting people was hard for me, but things fell into my lap once I got involved,” she said. “I want to help other transfer students make Binghamton the best it can be and not feel secluded if they live off campus or don’t know where something is.”
Diane Crews, a visiting assistant professor of human development, said Shapiro is someone who “makes things happen.”
“Mollie is an exceptional young leader,” Crews said. “She is a ‘civic entrepreneur’ in the truest sense in that she is very strategic in her thinking and she is very compassionate. She is quick to identify unmet needs in the community and find effective ways to build alliances among people whose paths wouldn’t ordinarily cross without such originality in thinking. She has the heart and mind to ensure that connections are made and the initiative to inspire ideas that provide benefit for the community.”
Shapiro hopes to find a job in the Binghamton community after graduation. Her time at the University has inspired a career goal of working at a students-with-disabilities office on a college campus.
“I think I have grown a lot as a person and as a young adult,” she said of her time at Binghamton. “I can’t believe it’s almost over. I want to continue to try to do great things. Binghamton has shaped who I’ve become. I’ve met some amazing people on campus and in the community.”