Committed to the Cause

WHEN ASKED TO describe his former quarterback, Jordan Steffy '08, Coach Ralph Friedgen '70, M.A. '72 has one word: committed.

As starting quarterback for the Maryland football team, he played through adversity and injury and earned an undergraduate degree. Now, at 23, he's on his way toward a master's degree from the real estate development program in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

But Steffy is just getting started. In 2004, he added foundation organizer to his resume when he founded Children Deserve a Chance, a charity intended to aid in the financial, emotional and spiritual development of underprivileged and disabled youth.

During Steffy's senior year of high school in Pennsylvania, he organized a fundraiser to help pay for life—saving brain surgery for a classmate with epilepsy. "Seeing how people can team up for a cause&mdashthe unbelievable results that are created—was lifechanging for me," explains Steffy. This experience set Steffy on the trajectory to establish his foundation in his hometown of Leola, Pa.

According to Friedgen, Steffy is "one of the few kids who can look into the future and see what he wants."

Despite a strenuous training regimen and a full course load, Steffy remained dedicated to his foundation. While throwing for more than 900 passing yards during his college career, he spent the off seasons driving back and forth to Leola. As on the field, Steffy relied on teammates to keep the game going when he couldn't be in town to lead the charity.

Volunteers from the Children Deserve a Chance Foundation deliver drinks and food to participants at a 2008 charity golf tournament (top). Jordan Steffy interacts with patients during a visit to the National Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C (middle and bottom).

"I've been blessed to have a team of dedicated volunteers who are willing to do whatever it takes to help this foundation achieve its goals," he says.

The foundation's current fundraiser seeks $500,000 to build the first Children Deserve a Chance Developmental Center for Youth in Lancaster, Pa. After receiving his master's, Steffy says he wants to spend a year and half overseeing the center's development and construction. It will offer adolescents in a high-risk area-where they are surrounded by drugs and gangs and need positive role models-a haven after school. The center, Steffy says, will give them the opportunity to develop personal relationships with their peers as well as mentors and staff members.-MB

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