Danielle Ponder (Image provided)
The College will host the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Leadership and Service at 9:45 a.m.–3 p.m., Monday, Jan. 21, 2019 in the MacVittie College Union Ballroom. The intergenerational event is for Geneseo students and senior citizen volunteers to learn and work together on important community outreach efforts.
Danielle Ponder, Esq., will deliver the keynote address, “For the Love of Justice.” Ponder, a Rochester, N.Y. native, is an activist, musician, and attorney. She performs internationally with her band, Danielle Ponder & The Tomorrow People. She is a former Monroe County public defender, where she provided defense for the impoverished. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at SUNY Brockport and Rochester Institute of Technology and sits on several community initiatives and sits on the board of Teen Empowerment.
At the annual intergenerational event, approximately 90 SUNY Geneseo students, 25 seniors, 15 faculty and staff members, and 15 high school students from Geneseo Central will be in attendance. This year’s volunteers will work on service projects that benefit local and national organizations and charities. The projects include making fleece blankets to be donated to the local Veterans Association, assembling and decorating Winter Care Bags for residents of Morgan Estates Nursing Home, and writing cards for Active Duty and Veterans as part of Operation Gratitude.
Students can choose from five GOLD workshops, and during lunch, alum Gurnaina Chawla ’16, a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence recipient who expects to graduate from Cornell Law School in 2020, will discuss “Service and Social Movements for Change.” The Gospel Choir will perform throughout the day.
For more information, visit the Office of Student Volunteerism and Community Engagement website for workshop information.