Ryan Allen has a confession to make: “Yemane, my Study Buddy, gets help with his homework when we meet every Wednesday — but I think I get even more out of our hour together than he does.”

Ryan’s first experience as a CommonBond volunteer came in 2006, when his employer, The Opus Group, partnered with CommonBond to build a playground in a park adjacent to Seward Tower West. “Opus is great about giving employees time to participate in volunteer work, so I joined the project committee,” he explains. “In the process, I met a lot of CommonBond staff and learned about the organization. I was so impressed by the CommonBond philosophy that I decided to become a regular volunteer.”

Another attraction was the chance to volunteer close to home: Ryan lives in the Seward neighborhood and Seward Tower West is right on his way home from work. He and Yemane spend an hour together in the building’s Advantage Center each week, often working on strengthening Yemane’s English-language skills — but they connect in other ways, too, with conversations about what’s going on in Yemane’s life. “He’s just a great kid: very respectful, and very much wanting to do well in school,” Ryan says. “It’s clear that his parents are serious about making it in this country and making sure that Yemane becomes a good American citizen.”

Ryan’s experience as a Study Buddy has changed the way he sees the world, he says, and made him a passionate advocate for the benefits of volunteering. “If everybody does just a little bit — being a Study Buddy only takes an hour a week! — it can make all the difference in the world,” he says.

“And volunteering has made a huge difference in my life, too. I leave our meetings every week with more energy. I feel like my life is better for the experience, and that the neighborhood where I live is more of a community because Yemane and I have made this connection. I didn’t go into volunteering looking for that kind of reward, but it’s an incredible bonus.”