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Online classes and virtual learning have become the new normal for students everywhere in the United States. But for high school students across the nation, logging community service hours is still a graduation requirement. Treedom has made it their mission to help these students achieve that requirement.

Treedom is a platform that helps students find opportunities to volunteer their time.

The startup's founder and CEO, Michael Kadisha has a lot to share about the mission and how the company plans to connect students with these opportunities to give back.

According to Kadisha, before the pandemic, all of Treedom’s volunteer opportunities were in person. Obviously, this has changed. Since the coronavirus began to fester, he knew the company would have to make some changes.

“We realized that we had to build features and we had to promote an idea of service that is more self-directed, project-based, and more in-line with the interests and passions of the students at the time,” Kadisha said.

“What we realized through that process is if we can provide the tools for students to engage in their community, not only can they learn more meaningfully — because they can. We know that they retain 75% more information when they can actually put it into practice — but simultaneously they became active change-makers in their communities.”

Kadisha says that these tools help students meet their volunteer service requirements and also better connect with the communities they are a part of.

“They went out, they did shopping for our senior citizens, they convinced local restaurants to stop using single-use plastics, or at least be more conscious of it. And we think we mobilized our 45,000 students to get involved in their communities in ways that we hadn’t been thinking about before,” said Kadisha

He also said that he's excited about the future and so are the people around him, thanks to Treedom.

“What we’ve seen from the students... is a very strong emphasis on their power and their voice and their contribution. They understand that the future is theirs. There’s no question about it ... That’s why we’re seeing them invest so much in climate change. It’s why we’re seeing them try to invest in their communities in ways that are quite inspiring,” Kadisha said.

“They’ve even organized groups to safely go door by door, trying to get their community to vote, and with that, I think we can be very optimistic about the future of our children.”

Kadisha says that in the near future the company will be launching a “generation of Treedom” that will be available to all ages, allowing everybody to participate in opportunities to better their communities.

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