"A Message of Unleashing Human Potential"

Matt Watters fell in love with Haiti in 2004, after a trip for his Eagle Scout project. Moved by his experience there, Watters became an emergency medical technician in the hopes of helping out in a health-related context; and in 2009, he spent a summer volunteering at SBH. This relationship was just the beginning.

Watters returned from the summer with thoughts of bringing more health care to rural environments. A student at the University of Delaware at the time, he set out to mobilize his peers in fundraising efforts for SBH. The 2010 earthquake saw the need only become greater, and Watters and his group—now called Students for Haiti—did any and everything they could to fundraise. Students for Haiti has since raised more than $80,000.

Students for Haiti has continued to grow, and partner branches at other colleges and universities across the country are beginning to form. Watters, who has since graduated from the University of Delaware and is currently receiving his Master of Business Administration with a focus on social entrepreneurship at Oxford University, has passed the torch but remains involved.

“We’ve accomplished a lot in Haiti,” Watters says. “And while that was the original mission, Students for Haiti has also developed into a message of unleashing human potential. Students are able to see that they can do something and that they’re not marginalized perhaps as much as they thought they were.”