Spanish teacher Kirsten Carter,  appears in front of the classroom with a beaming grin on her face, declaring to the class that she has a plan to share. She asks the class permission to speak in English, as she often does before explaining an important concept that she wants her students to understand, and the class agrees. Excited, she launches into an explanation of her plan to create a club involving the language classes aimed at helping the world a club that would be called ‘Dollars for Dreams’.

Dollars for Dreams meets once a month, using $1 donations from students in order to fund a loan for a person in need. The club began when Carter watched Living on One Dollar, a movie that shows a social experiment of students living on one dollar, with the class, and was inspired to make a club to help. She was inspired by the idea of microlending, or the lending of very small amounts at a low interest rate. The money is loaned through KIVA, the world’s leading online lending program. The money is paid back to the club by those the loans are given to, so can be reinvested over and over.

Carter said, “The concept is so basic, but can make such a significant impact on other people’s lives and spread through their communities.”

The club is mainly student run, with students making most major decisions and contributions. They are in charge of websites, advertising and recruiting. Students helped to decide the name of the club, with collaborations from each class on a word document that listed all potential names of the student group. Included on the document was the club’s purpose, ideas for raising money and taglines.

“The club was thought up by Profe Carter, but she let the students name it and come up with a slogan, and most parts are run by the students, so it is really cool that we have this new club that is so important and there are so many students ready and wanting to be a part of it,” junior Julia Ek said.

The idea was readily embraced by students the moment Carter announced her idea.

“[The students] made me cry at least twice with their enthusiasm, motivation, and generosity,” Carter said. “The very next day after we announced the idea of the club, the response was tremendous. In only 24 hours, students created a mission statement, name, website, a list of leaders and plan.”

Over the month of March, the first month the club officially met as a club, over $220 was raised. Presidents run the monthly meetings where members choose the loan recipients, vote, donate the money and count it. One leader maintains the website, another the Twitter, and soon there will be a promo video.

“People will be able to pay for shelter, food, education, clothing and much more because of us. Who knew a dollar a month could give others so much? Some of the money given is what allows the loaners to work to keep themselves alive,” sophomore Kiley Jones said.

The recipient of the March donation was Carlos from La Paz, Bolivia. Carlos needed a loan to afford tuition for a degree in accounting.

“From the efforts of Dollars for Dreams, we have successfully assisted in the completion of Carlos’ loan to complete his goal of $1,050 which allowed Carlos to pay his college tuition for a degree in accounting and start his own system of income!” said the Dollars for Dreams website.

In the month of April, Nanci from Los Bancos, Ecuador received the loan. She is a divorced woman who lives in the Recinto Primero de Mayo, and had to assume leadership of her household when her husband left her.

“Seeing what we are are able to do and how we are helping improve the lives of others just by donating a dollar a month, we are really helping others to accomplish their dreams,” Ek said.

In the future, Carter would like to change the donations from being $1 a month to $12 one time. She hopes to continue the club for as long as possible, and would like to encourage anyone that is interested to join.

“The only cost is the $1 each month and as we say, ‘“A small cost to make a big change,’” Carter said.