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How to Find Interested Students

When looking to find student advocates in your service area, we recommend starting with your "inner circle."

Do you know any students? Do your coworkers know students? Do you have relationships with local professors?

Tapping into your volunteers and their community events​

• Reach out to current volunteers via email. Encourage students to establish a SODA chapter or host a SODA event, while also urging adults to share information about SODA with the students in their networks.

• Include information about SODA in presentations to high school, college, and graduate school groups.

• Mention SODA in your volunteer training, even if the audience is mostly adults, who can later share information with their children or grandchildren.

• Distribute flyers detailing the opportunity to start a SODA chapter or host a SODA event with your OPO’s support.

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Partner with local high school, college, and graduate school campuses 

• Existing health-related organizations, such as Pre-health Honoraries and Be The Match, make excellent targets for identifying potential student advocates. The contact information for these organizations is often available through the campus website or accessible on LinkedIn.

  • SODA National is happy to accept a student group identified on campus under a different name, and we do not mandate our chapters to operate specifically under the name "SODA."

• Faculty and administrators, particularly those in fields such as ethics, public policy, science, engineering, and health, can provide direct access to interested students.

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Connect with transplant centers

• Some transplant centers have outreach staff who can assist with finding and advising new student advocates.

• Transplant centers may be willing to share SODA flyers with students who are receiving treatment or have loved ones receiving treatment. 

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Mobilize your colleagues

• Ask your colleagues if they know any students who have leadership qualities within their high school, college, or graduate school social circles and possess strong communication skills. Compile a list of these recommendations and email the students to explore their passion and potential interest in hosting an event or initiating a chapter at their school.

• Don't forget, your co-workers' children can also start SODA chapters!