Novi sophomore uses coding skills to help people find volunteer opportunities

NOVI — Aarush Arun, a sophomore at Novi High School, volunteers his time regularly. Last year alone, he volunteered around 105 hours. However, he said many people he knows are having trouble finding volunteer opportunities that fit their interests.

So, he said he decided to do something about that and created an app called Give Time, which won the annual Congressional App Challenge award for Michigan’s District 6.

To win the contest, high school students must create an app that benefits their community and showcases their coding capabilities. A winner is selected for each congressional district across the country.

Arun’s app helps anyone interested in volunteer work find and apply for volunteer opportunities online as well as in the city of Novi and its surrounding areas. It also provides a platform for those seeking volunteers to post the opportunity.

“It is for anyone who is just willing to give back to the community,” Arun said.

Arun, 16, said that he has been volunteering for at least the last five years, and he really enjoys it.

“I just like to be active in the community, and I like to see the people around me and make sure that the community around me is a good place, a safe place,” Arun said. “And anywhere that wants, like, volunteers, and I’m capable of providing, I feel there’s no better use of my time, and so I try and do as much volunteering as I can.”

Arun’s volunteer hours last year earned him the Presidential Volunteer Service Award, which goes to those 15 and younger who volunteer more than 100 hours in a year. As he is now 16, he said he will have to do more than 250 hours to earn the award this year.

Arun, who runs track and is a black belt in karate, spends his free time helping to train kids in his dojo and tutoring kids online in math and science. He said he hopes to be a software engineer.

As the district winner, Arun was offered the opportunity to showcase his app alongside the other district winners in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, he had a scheduling conflict and was not able to go. Instead, he will be picking up his certificate from Congresswoman Debbie Dingell in Ann Arbor May 3.

“It was a wonderful experience. I loved being a part of the entire program, and it inspired me to challenge myself, push myself, and ultimately make a better product that I would have on my own,” Arun said of the contest. “It was a great experience and I was pretty happy when I won, really overjoyed when I won, because it’s not only a great opportunity to get my app out there and try and like get more people to volunteer and give back, but also to meet our congresswoman and other people who serve us in (the) legislature every day.”

He said he has no political aspirations, but that it is great to meet those who serve us in government.

This is the first app that Arun has developed. It is not yet available for the public to download. Arun said they are very close to having the app made available in the Google Play Store and he hopes to have it on the Apple App Store as well.

During the app’s developmental stage, Arun said a friend of his tested the app and not only found a volunteer opportunity with the city of Novi’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department, but that opportunity eventually led to a paid position.

Arun said his goal was to make volunteering more accessible to people, as they are more likely to volunteer and volunteer often if it is not hard to find the opportunities within the community.

“By providing ease of accessibility to all of these different, great volunteer organizations, I also hope that people just give back in general; like, volunteer more,” he said.

Arun’s father, Arun Chandrasekaran, said he is very proud of his son and grateful to the school district for providing his son with the opportunity.

“I think that getting the focus for the kids to volunteer will really make an impact to society,” Chandrasekaran said. “It kind of channels their smartness and energy in a very positive way. It kind of gives them a purpose for all of the cool things that they are working on.”