ONE MENTOR’S VISION IS CREATING THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Aneisha Hughes. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Aneisha Hughes has been on a 17-year journey to build Big Sister Little Sister, and she’s just getting started.

Aneisha founded the organization, a national mentoring program with a global impact that promotes life skills, wellness and principles of self with a focus on personal and professional development, in 2008 when she was just a young student herself.

Knowing she had the type of dynamic personality to reach others and make an impact, campus leaders approached Aneisha because they recognized her potential. On her campus, Aneisha saw how a lack of community affected other students.

Loneliness and isolation hurt the academic performance of other young women and led them not to finish school. As a result, they weren’t able to take hold of the professional opportunities an education would provide them. Aneisha identified those negative consequences as the ripple effect that not having a sense of community can cause. She established BSLS to offer mentorship, mental health support, leadership training and community service opportunities for other young women to keep them in the pipeline to a brighter future.

Flash forward to 2025, and BSLS has grown exponentially. The group has expanded from a school campus initiative to a national organization that has 30 chapters across 14 states and Washington, D.C., and continues to grow, reaching over 15,000 youth and women. But no matter where the chapter is located, Aneisha is at its core. She maintains a full-time career outside of her founder role, using her primary career to personally fund many of BSLS’s initiatives, so she can ensure that mentees and members receive opportunities that transform their lives. Still, she volunteers over 100 hours a month with BSLS, tackling responsibilities that include everything from recruiting and interviewing new volunteers and organizing large-scale events to leading national and board meetings and plotting the organization’s plans for the future. And she certainly has plenty of plans. Despite the tremendous growth of BSLS over the last 17 years, Aneisha’s vision for BSLS’ future is still incredibly bright. She hopes to establish a brick-and-mortar location in the future that will serve as a place for members to study and live.

Aneisha believes her volunteer work is about lifting others while building lasting systems of change. Her passion for helping others find community is a testament to the power of connection.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Big Sister Little Sister.

I would say everything from the operations, like our day-to-day functions, to managing our programs and making sure our membership volunteers are onboarded. They get assignments that I oversee and help with. We have a social media and graphic design team, but I help with leading and approving that as well, in addition to reviewing our members’ surveys and their applications to see what they’re looking for. I’ll review those and implement programs, and I collaborate with other volunteers to create curriculum, and work with compliance and legal. I help with the donor management, program management, operations, compliance, legal, marketing, graphics and apparel.

What inspired you to get started with this initiative?

I was a teenager when I first got started with BSLS. The Student Government Association on campus reached out and asked me to do something that would make an impact. I saw on my campus how so many young ladies were starting school but not finishing. They didn’t have any community. They were very lonely. They were experiencing depression and loneliness, which was impacting the way they showed up academically, and which ultimately impacts them professionally. I realized the ripple effect that not having a community can have on people, both personally and professionally. That was what inspired me to help people.

What inspires you to volunteer?

I would say my faith. I think I’m called, and I have a responsibility to do this work. I think helping the next generation of global change makers. I say my faith and my calling are one. On a larger scale, I would say knowing firsthand how this work addresses the gaps in systems that are often overlooked when it comes to wellness, leadership and education. I feel like this organization continues to make the world a better place. From a purpose standpoint, I know that this work creates lasting changes, and it gives people an opportunity to feel seen, valued and heard. I think it connects us to our differences and reminds us that shared humanity creates ripples of impact.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

We just started this plan called Operation Orange. Operation Orange has not only been helping us fill in gaps within the organization, but it has also been showing us where we want to grow and scale BSLS in an impactful way. Some of that has been through our pillars: Mentorship, public health, mental health, education equity, career readiness and housing stability. We found out that many of our members, especially the ones who are around 18, are experiencing a lot of financial hardships. So one of our long-term initiatives is to have a brick-and-mortar site for BSLS to host our programs and events, but also a place for our members to study and live. This will be a place where they live, work and grow.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

If I had to choose one, it would be the people. From the members and the people we serve to the people who volunteer with us. If it weren’t for our volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to sustain this organization. Some of our volunteers have been serving on the volunteer level for more than five to 10 years. I asked them what helps them continue to stay, and they say it’s when they meet the members and hear their stories. Just seeing the work that this organization does really fuels me. I would say definitely the people. If you don’t have people to serve and people to do the serving, that can take away from the entire organization. Everything we do in life matters because we’re doing it together and alongside one another.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve learned that people don’t just need programs. They need your genuine presence. People don’t want to know that you’re just checking off some community service box of getting hours. Your genuine presence means a lot. I’ve learned that you can transform lives in ways that you can’t even measure. I’ve also learned patience and resiliency and humility because of this work. It’s unpaid. I show up because I love what I do, and sometimes doing this work with little to no capital can be very, very taxing.

Why is it important for others to get involved with causes they care about?

I feel like it’s fulfilling. It’s fulfilling personally when you can get involved in causes that matter to you. It’s also important because it connects us in a bigger way outside of ourselves. If life were all about ourselves, then the population wouldn’t look the way it does. We all have a calling to serve one another. Our calling may be different when it comes to how we serve, because we all have different skills and capabilities, but I think that we’re all meant to serve. We just have to figure out what that looks like for each of us. I think we’re all, in a way, servant leaders, and when we use our gifts and passions to make a difference, we not only change the lives of the people we’re serving, but we also find meaning and fulfillment within our own selves as well.

What do you want people to learn from your story?

The world changes when people decide to care. I can’t remember if it’s Maya Angelou or someone else, but I always think of the saying that mentions how people don’t remember what you said or what you did, but they will remember how you made them feel. When you show up in a way where people know that you genuinely care, they’ll remember that. You can save a life by just showing up.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Aneisha? Find local volunteer opportunities.