“We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit.” – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)

I like to sometimes read over the Port Huron Statement, written by a small group of university students in 1962. As a college student myself, I am both energized and crippled by their statement, more than forty-five years after it was written. We want change. We want to better our communities and the world, but how? There is always something that we need to do: go to class, finish that paper or problem set, make money to afford a college degree. I am involved in organizations, but sometimes I wonder if I am really affecting change. Finding a role for which I am most captivated and most needed is, in itself, an overwhelming task.

This is where replyforall came in. With the cost to me being no more than a bit of space from my hard drive, I can both spread awareness and raise money for my cause, just by hitting “send”: the more people that use the replyforall signature, the more its sponsors donate.

replyforall does me another favor, too. By displaying the organizations that receive donations, with links to their websites, I’m not just supporting some vague, idealistic cause. I am donating money to projects that these organizations already have underway, some of which I never would have known about otherwise. The transparency of replyforall gives me the opportunity to see what my impact is and where it lies— it also provides me the opportunity to show support for my causes by informing me of other organizations in which I can take part.

Is money going to solve all of the world’s problems? No. Is this e-mail application the end of my activism and the only step I will take? Absolutely not. But it does help me to make a difference while I figure out what the next step will be, and while I do something that is part of my every day life as a student.

So that’s why I joined replyforall. If you haven’t joined, download the application. And if you already have, tell you friends. And check out the organizations supported by replyforall — they do amazing work.

Fight the good fight,

Johanna Hudgens
Wellesley College
Class of 2009