Giving Compass' Take:

· Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen explains how Paul Goetchius helped a number of low-income college students get home for the holidays by volunteering with On Point for College and providing car rides to students who faced challenges affording transportation to get home. 

· How can funders help programs like this to scale up? What other types of support do these students need? 

· Learn about programs for low-income college students that actually work


Paul Goetchius is supporting low-income students one car ride at a time.

The 76-year-old retired environmental toxicologist from Syracuse drives low-income college students to and from school all around New York, the Washington Post reports. He’s already put 64,368 miles on his car picking up students in between breaks and will take trips as long as eight hours.

“I just love driving, and I love these kids,” Goetchius said to the Washington Post.

“There are programs for everything, and I’m not really a program man. But I like to drive, and it’s such a blessing and a privilege to be a part of these kids’ lives, even just for a few hours, getting to know them and hearing their stories.”

Goetchius has helped students who needed rides because their family’s don’t own cars, or their parents can’t leave work to drive them home. In some cases, the students are homeless.

Read the full article about helping students get home for the holidays by Leah Rodriguez at Global Citizen.