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 Vivek Ramakrishnan doesn’t sound like your average high school student when he speaks.
Maybe it's the detailed manner with which he talks. Or maybe it's what he's talking about. Ramakrishnan is a 17-year-old senior at Madison West who for the past two-plus years has been operating Pass It On Soccer, an organization that aims to address the need for proper soccer equipment in Africa by collecting gently used items in the U.S.
Ramakrishnan's inspiration came from one of his youth soccer coaches, Ibrahima Barry, a native of Gambia. Barry told Ramakrishnan stories from his youth, about having to make balls out of whatever materials were available and how he didn’t get to play with a real ball consistently until he was in his late teens and was training with one of the country's youth national teams.
"That’s what kind of opened my eyes in the first place," said Ramakrishnan, who repeatedly encountered similar tales of hardship as he became more interested in Africa and its culture.
It was all very different from his soccer experience. Ramakrishnan played for the Madison 56ers as a youngster before moving to California during middle school.
"All the things kids here take for granted," he said. "… It just kind of dawned on me, like this is something simple I can do to help."
Ramakrishnan started out doing everything on his own – soliciting donations, collecting items, cleaning and disinfecting them and shipping them to destinations he found through Barry or his aunt, who used to work with the United Nations. Since then, he's recruited a few friends who will hand out flyers to publicize a collection date and return to pick up donated equipment. A friend in California has begun collecting items as well, while Break Away Sports Center recently donated 60 balls.
The equipment goes to a mixture of soccer clubs, schools, churches and community organizations throughout Africa – groups in Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Morocco have been among the recipients. Ramakrishnan even traveled to Uganda in July to bring equipment and host a tournament along with Kampala School of Excellence Ministries, a school in the Ugandan capital that houses and educates orphaned and abandoned children. KSEM originally found Pass It On's website and emailed a request for donations in May 2010.
"One thing that I really took out of this, is I realized the capacity sports has for greater social progress," he said, mentioning the HIV education that is done by some of the soccer teams that participated in the tournament. "On a very personal level, I saw in Uganda firsthand how soccer equipment can bring daily happiness, but I also saw how sports can facilitate more meaningful social change."
The interesting aside to all of Ramakrishnan's efforts is that he hasn't played soccer at West since his sophomore year. Instead, he opted to kick for the football team and has drawn interest from NCAA Division I programs – he's scheduled to visit Duke in the near future.
"Soccer's my love, it's my No. 1 sport and everything, but because football became a player in college, I kind of had to forego my junior and senior years," said Ramakrishnan, who also is a goalie for the West hockey team and is planning to do a penny drive based on how many saves he makes this season.
Wherever he ends up in the future, he's planning on bringing Pass It On along. The tournament in Uganda is slated to be an annual event that Ramakrishnan will continue to organize and finance.
"In the future, I'd like to bring a few friends abroad with me to see the impact and furthermore, try to facilitate deeper social change," he said.
To contact Pass It On about donating or receiving equipment or making a monetary tax-deductible donation (through Soccer Without Borders, which has granted fiscal sponsorship to Pass It On), email Ramakrishnan at
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