“It doesn’t take much to make a difference.”

That’s the lesson that Alana Acosta learned when she turned a classroom assignment into a service project with real impact.

In Professor Rina Keller’s Business Communications course in the spring of 2025, students were challenged to develop and pitch an idea, real or hypothetical, as if they were seeking a million-dollar investment. Acosta created Package of Possibilities, a social entrepreneurship concept to match donor organizations with individuals in need of essential resources.

That broad, abstract notion morphed into a concrete plan of action during her Community Peer Minister (CPM) training in the summer of the same year. The seven students in the CPM program engaged in a service experience at St. Francis Inn, a soup kitchen and social service center in Kensington, and Acosta was mesmerized.

“It was not at all what I expected,” she recalls. “The friendships between the Inn staff and the people coming in to have dinner amazed me. The staff knew everyone who came in. They were treated with respect and dignity there. The staff did that so naturally and lived their mission so clearly. It was beautiful.”

It was then that the idea took shape. She could focus the concept that she presented in class on one community and serve people who were overlooked or on the margins of society.

In the fall, Acosta organized her Campus Ministry peers and launched a drive to collect toiletries, treasured items for clients at St. Francis Inn. Her team -- Allison Siravo, Reagan Mitcheltree, Hannah Betchyk, Landon Pearson, Danielle DiNafo, and Valerie Wheeler -- placed donation boxes in high-traffic locations in the library, Abessinio and Bachmann lobbies, and every dorm.

She made the packaging of the gift bags into a campus service opportunity in November, even arranging an assembly line in the Dining Hall that attracted volunteer help from students, faculty, and staff. Within a week, 200 gift bags were delivered to the Inn.

Each bag contained shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a comb, and a prayer card.

A Business Administration major, Acosta is the daughter of Criminal Justice professor Kristen Acosta. With the blueprint for Package of Possibilities now in place, the junior hopes that the project will continue.

“The experience shows the power of community,” Acosta concludes. “Excitement about an idea is contagious. Others latch onto it and want to help. I am truly grateful to Professor Keller for prompting this idea and Director of Campus Ministry Gui Lopes and Campus Minister Rachel Dunlap for their guidance and encouragement in helping me bring it to life.”

When students like her are willing to lead, Acosta is right. “It doesn’t take much to make a difference.”