TODAY Show Features Walk in Their Shoes

The TODAY show featured Jim Ziolkowski, CEO and Founder of buildOn, along with buildOn students from Banana Kelly high school in the South Bronx to show how the organization is working to break the cycle of illiteracy, poverty and low expectations through service and education.

The segment shines a spotlight on the students involved in the buildOn program in the South Bronx. School attendance has improved, and truancy has declined. Grades are improving and students are becoming leaders in their communities.

Earlier this year those same buildOn students from the South Bronx went to Haiti to help build a school. It is a great example of how buildOn empowers students to become leaders not only in their communities but to also help with under-served communities around the world.

TODAY show Natalie Morales reports on Jim Ziolkowski´s beginnings and how his passion project became a movement. The segment aired the same week as the release of ¨Walk in Their Shoes;¨ the powerful, personal story of Jim Ziolkowski and the thousands of young people stepping up to making a difference.

Walk in Their Shoes was also featured in TODAY Books- the section of the TODAY Show website that features book reviews and news. An excerpt of the book has been posted and can be read here.

If you´d like to learn more about buildOn and CEO and Founder Jim Ziolkowski, you can purchase the book here and be entered for a chance to win a trip for two to Africa to join us in building a school.