Serving others is a passion that runs deep in Abbas Dadawalla, a third-year Fresno State biological science major.
“I have been volunteering in the Fresno community and areas around the Central Valley for many years,” he said. “I have been fortunate to acquire valuable skills through my experience in volunteering.”
Dadawalla has volunteered for various organizations since his youth as a member of the Boy Scouts of America program. The organization places great importance on consistent volunteering. Through this experience, he was able to learn about many of the needs in the community and where his time and skills could best be applied. This laid the groundwork for his current community service efforts.
Abbas Dadawalla
“When I came to Fresno State I knew I wanted to take on a bigger role, not only as a volunteer but an event and volunteer coordinator,” Dadawalla said. “The Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning at Fresno State provided this through their student leader program, and gave me a great deal of autonomy to plan volunteering opportunities and explore new volunteer events available through the university.”
One of these volunteer opportunities was Alternative Spring Break at Scout Island Outdoor Education Center, which Dadawalla helped organize and where he served alongside several other Fresno State students. The three-day event educated volunteers on ecological services and conservation practices while they worked on projects to improve the educational experience of grade school students from Central Valley school districts.
Dadawalla shared his pride about the event that resulted in more than 750 hours of volunteer work and contributed to more than 1 million hours of service that he and 14,234 Fresno State students, faculty, staff and administrators provided to the community during the 2022-23 academic year.
“Year over year, Fresno State students, faculty and staff invest their time, expertise and pour out their hearts into bettering the community through opportunities with the Richter Center and other programs across campus,” said Fresno State President Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval. “I am extremely proud of the work that the Fresno State family does in our community and their dedication to elevate the quality of life in the region.”
Data collected for the annual Service Impact on the Community Report by the Richter Center documents a total of 1.39 million hours of service during the 2022-23 school year. The total economic impact of that service is estimated to be $53.1 million, based on calculations from the Independent Sector, a national nonpartisan network of nonprofit and philanthropic organizations and professionals.
The services provided range from short-term activities like blood drives with the Central California Blood Center and programs such as Central Valley College Corps to an average of 170 service-learning courses.
Dadawalla is aspiring to be a dentist in the Central Valley. However, he emphasizes that he will continue to look for ways to serve the community.
“I think my volunteer coordinating experience would be extremely useful in arranging pop-up clinics for underserved communities and certainly for communicating with other professionals who would like to volunteer their time and skills,” he said. “Engaging in volunteering activities helps us become more grounded individuals, especially when it brings us joy and strengthens our ties to the community.”
(Written by Katie Xiong, University Marketing and Communications news assistant.)
