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Co-founders, Kobu Foundation

Ironically, Kai Suematsu and Samariddin Meliboev realized they had good chemistry when they met in a high-school chemistry class in Denver鈥檚 George Washington High School.

Since then, the friends and recent Leeds graduates have been a force for change in helping Colorado鈥檚 less-fortunate population through several initiatives focused on food donations and delivery.听

鈥淲hen people say, 鈥榃hat do you do for fun?鈥� and you say, 鈥業 volunteer,鈥� people think it鈥檚 weird,鈥� Kai said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 really just hanging out with friends, and volunteering while you do it.鈥�

Kai and Samariddin created Denver Club of Humanities, a food pantry, in high school with classmate Kelly Trang, also a 麻豆免费版下载Boulder student. Because of their different schedules in college, Kelly and Jamal Giornazi鈥攁nother 麻豆免费版下载Boulder student and Washington alumnus鈥攈ave not been as involved with Kobu, 鈥渂ut Kelly had such a big influence on how we run Kobu, especially in terms of how she helped us create a culture at Denver Club,鈥� Samariddin said.听

The friends started Kobu after searching for ways to pick up the threads of Denver Club of Humanities, and found their answer when pandemic-related quarantine measures made it harder to get food donations to the people who needed them. Since then, Kobu has delivered some 150,000 meals, powered by both donations and the volunteer efforts of 麻豆免费版下载Boulder students who help prepare donations for delivery. On top of that, Kobu has awarded more than $15,000 in scholarships to students鈥攖he founders鈥� acknowledgment of the scholarships they received and their role in making an education affordable. 听

In turn, their education has given Kai and Samariddin invaluable perspective on how to build a better, more sustainable vision for their volunteerism.

鈥淏usiness classes taught us how to network with the community, which helped us quickly get started when the pandemic hit,鈥� Samariddin said.听

Learning when to pivot

Kai, who also completed a certificate in entrepreneurship as part of his Leeds studies, said the ability to iterate and shift is core to almost every class he鈥檚 taken.听

鈥淜nowing when to pivot, knowing what the big idea is and figuring out how to fill a needed role is something we learned about a lot,鈥� he said.听

Their business skills are especially important now, as the pair decide what to do with the nonprofit they鈥檝e built. Both have started work after graduating early (Samariddin at Kaiser Permanente, Kai at Accenture) and are now weighing an acquisition offer from a larger, more established organization.

鈥淲e鈥檇 like to see Kobu get to the next level, and this organization has the systems, grant money and scale to do that,鈥� Kai said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 also value in having it stay with 麻豆免费版下载students.鈥澨�

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