Kansas University graduating senior Hannah Vick, Lawrence, is pictured May 4 on campus. Vick plans to get her master’s in social work from Columbia University in New York. Her hopes, she explained, are to work for a nonprofit that helps resettle refugees in the United States.

Hannah Vick grew up believing she could change the world.

OK, maybe not the world — she is practical, after all — but you can certainly make a difference by helping one person at a time.

The 2008 Lawrence High School graduate has given time to various volunteering projects throughout her young life. After her graduation this weekend from Kansas University, she’ll pursue a master’s degree in international social work at Columbia University in New York.

She started as a journalism major but eventually found her way to English literature and social work, a double-major plan that was better fit with her already-established resume filled with community volunteering.

“It took a while to occur to me why I’d limit myself to doing the work I love just outside of school,” she said.

After high school, she spent the summer as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Lawrence, an opportunity that came from her steady work through the United Way Roger Hill Volunteer Center.

She continued her commitment to volunteering and its administration as a leader in the Alternative Breaks program on campus. She’s also worked with Catholic Charities in Kansas City, Kan., helping recent immigrants and refugees get established in the United States.

That’s the kind of work she wants to continue, she said, and she’s looking forward to her program’s mix of “macro policy education and one-on-one work.”

Last summer, she interned in San Francisco at 826 Valencia, a nonprofit that helps at-risk youth with writing skills. It was an internship that she basically created for herself, she said, through persistence.

Vick said she’s “had the privilege” to give back to the community through programs in Lawrence and on campus, and appreciates the opportunities that are available.

“It’s very easy to get involved as a freshman, and I came ready to take action,” she said. “I’ve been able to bring my passion into volunteer experience and get other students involved.”

Her advice to other students looking for their passions is to “take the reflection to evaluate what parts of your life you love and let it unfold as it does.”

Vick’s father is a chemical engineer, and her mother is a longtime volunteer. They’ve inspired her to do outreach.

“It’s definitely a family value,” she said about volunteering, “but also a path that I’ve taken.”