Jim Ziolkowski

Activist, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Global soul, Public servant, Social entrepreneur, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Inspired by his passion for service and education, Jim Ziolkowski left a career in corporate finance to found the nonprofit buildOn in 1991. Since then, he has served as CEO and led the organization in breaking the cycle of poverty and illiteracy through buildOn’s Service Learning Program in the U.S. and Global School Construction Program in the world’s economically poorest countries. To date, buildOn has mobilized hundreds of thousands of U.S. youth to contribute millions of hours of intensive service in their communities. Once students get involved in buildOn, they come to school 15 more days per year and 98% graduate on time. Globally, hundreds of thousands of parents have contributed over 6.1 million volunteer work days to build more than 3,200 schools. There are now more than 400,000 children, parents, and grandparents attending these schools they helped to build. Half the students are girls. Jim is the N.Y. Times bestselling author of Walk in Their Shoes and has been featured on NBC’s TODAY Show, CNN, CBS Evening News, PBS, TED, The Wall Street Journal, and NPR. He has also been endorsed by three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including Mother Teresa, the 14th Dalai Lama, and former President Barack Obama. Jim received a Doctorate in Humane Letters, honoris causa, from St. John’s University, where he delivered the commencement speech for the 2024 graduating class.

Service, youth development, international development, school building, my family

International Development and Social Change, Non-Profit Business, youth development