Who says an internship can’t change your life?

During the summer of her junior year, Jess Ekstrom worked for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

As she interacted with children facing life-threatening illnesses, she discovered that young girls loved to wear headbands instead of wigs after losing their hair to chemotherapy.

Armed with inspiration to do good beyond her internships, she soon after founded Headbands of Hope. HOH creates fun, fashionable headbands, and for every headband purchased, one is given to a girl with cancer and $1 is donated to childhood cancer research.

Since launching the organization in 2012, HOH has been featured on The Today Show, Seventeen Magazine, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and more. Most importantly, thousands of headbands have been donated to girls coast-to-coast fighting cancer. So many college students want to make a difference, and plan to do it “someday.” Jess is living proof that a college student with an amazing idea and a willingness to act on it need not wait. College students can build companies, affect change, and solve problems before graduation, if they have the commitment. In her campus keynote, Jess shares her journey creating Headbands of Hope, encouraging audience members to change awareness of issues into action. “Awareness is only skimming the surface of change,” she said. “When we focus on action instead of just awareness, things really change.” Jess is a great choice for programs that encourage leadership, social change and making the most of your college experience. Consider her whenever you are promoting service and social change to students. Consider her for women’s achievement seminars, new student orientation, leadership conferences, and more. She is also a wonderful option for Panhellenic councils looking for an example of a woman who put the value of service into action. Has community service become a requirement? Something we have to do to please those evaluating us? From college applications to campus awards, so many students are engaging in service projects within their organizations. But, are they really making the connection to the good work they are doing? In this keynote, Jess Ekstrom encourages student leaders to “redefine philanthropy” from a requirement to a lifestyle. “We’re so worried about crossing philanthropy and service requirements off our list that we forget the purpose behind it. We forget to feel the passion.” ^[1]