Like many high school graduates, Drew Edwards felt conflicted about what he wanted to do with his life. The Detroit-area native planned to study education at the University of Toledo. But his desire to help others around the world ultimately pulled him in a different direction.

Despite his parents’ trepidation, Edwards delayed college for a year to experience life from a radically different perspective. He signed up to work at a Ugandan camp for displaced persons through the interfaith group Youth with a Mission.

Prayer and a scholarship through the Steans Center for Community-based Service Learning led Edwards to DePaul University, where he graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in international studies. Between the demands of classes and running for DePaul’s track team, Edwards has been operating Pangea Educational Development, a nonprofit organization he cofounded as a sophomore. He currently serves as its director of international operations.

The organization is dedicated to assisting the primary educational needs of Ugandan children through scholarships and direct support of educational facilities. It supports three schools each serving more than 200 students in disparate regions of Uganda as well as an education program in a juvenile detention center for 30 youths awaiting trial.

Already, Pangea has produced major benefits for the schools. It created computer labs and garnered support from major companies such as American Airlines and Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm. Edelman has assisted with fundraising to support Pangea’s microfinance business model.

Edwards’ passion to assist the underprivileged has been contagious. He has helped recruit scores of students from DePaul and other schools to join him on his summer and winter break missions, with teams numbering as many as 45 participants. About half of those volunteers have returned to Uganda to continue Pangea’s work.

“I realized that you can’t make an impact just by spending a few weeks in a foreign country,” Edwards said. “We plan to continue this work for the long term.”

While Edwards noted that he started Pangea with little more knowledge than he gleaned from a “Nonprofits for Dummies” manual, he said his DePaul education has been invaluable in helping him develop the skills and acumen to guide his ambitious undertaking through the critical startup years. “Jumping into a project like this has helped me understand what I needed to succeed — thinking more critically, communicating more clearly,” he said.

Pangea’s work also has focused on student needs closer to home, as volunteer mentors regularly meet with students from low-income families living in the Marshall Field Garden Apartments in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood.

“The practicality of DePaul and its infusion with the city made our work possible,” said Edwards. Among the mentors during his college career, Edwards cites Siobhan O’Donoghue, director of the Vincentian Community Service Office, and Melinda Wright, a graduate assistant with the School of Public Service.

“He does what he does because he believes that another world is possible, and he is determined to bring this vision to reality,” said O’Donoghue. “Drew is a living example of the Vincentian wisdom that all the things that separate us are circumstances that don’t touch the essence of who we are. Drew has allowed his heart to be changed by those who are broken and poor and as a result has come to see what is essential in a person.”

After graduation, Edwards will spend at least the next two years in Uganda as Pangea’s first full-time volunteer, but he hesitates to speculate where life will ultimately lead him. “If you can see the next step,” he said, “don’t worry about the staircase.”

Written by John Holden