Nothing is more magical than the power of a book to fuel a child’s imagination.
Malcolm Mitchell, a former Georgia wide receiver who played professionally with the New England Patriots, has encouraged elementary school students to find the books that inspire them since founding his nonprofit literacy foundation, Share the Magic, in 2016.
When he wanted to take the foundation to the next level and develop a growth plan for the small but impactful organization, he found help back at his alma mater with the Leonard Leadership Scholars Program at the Institute for Leadership Advancement at the Terry College of Business.
“Our team had great takeaways and took a lot from working with Share the Magic,” said senior Leonard Leadership Scholar Mattie Garrett, who is majoring in finance at management information systems at Terry. “Something I learned was the power of a good idea with commitment and passion behind it.”
Mitchell is the heart and soul of his nonprofit. At hundreds of reading rallies at schools across the country, he shares his struggles with learning to read as a kid, encourages students to do the necessary work, and promises them that reading will expand their worlds if they keep at it.
Kids love it. Teachers love it. Parents love it.
But Mitchell can’t be everywhere, so Share the Magic’s leadership team tasked the ILA scholars with developing a growth plan to help Share the Magic expand its reach to more schools and students. Using the skills they learned at the Terry College and ILA, the team provided a professional S.W.O.T. analysis of Share the Magic’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and provided Mitchell concrete next steps for ensuring the organization thrives.
ILA’s mission is to develop values-based, impact-driven leaders through innovative leadership courses and opportunities to develop professional, networking skills and effective teaming skills. As part of the program, students attend leadership lectures, interact with alumni across industries, and are required to complete a year-long service project benefitting the larger community.
Garrett worked with fellow senior scholars Ria Sardana, a risk management major; finance and accounting major Ben Abrams; economics and Spanish major Anna Hill; and finance majors Olivia Dao and Annie Dollyhigh.
“Every idea requires stability to scale and function properly,” Mitchell told students during their final presentation in late 2024. “How do you stabilize an idea? You have to ask, ‘How does this not exist just for the moment? How do you get this to exist into perpetuity?’ And that’s where you guys helped us get to. We needed to know to structure things from an organizational perspective to help us grow.”
While not every ILA project has the star power of Malcolm Mitchell, the effect students made through the Share the Magic organization is illustrative of what ILA students do to help groups solve problems.
Students have the time to focus on one problem at a time, gather the information and provide stakeholders with the necessary tools.
“Service-learning projects selected for the scholars need to be feasible, achievable in two semesters, and above all, something that the community needs and will have a positive impact on the broader environment,” said Stacy Campbell, Synovus Director of the Institute for Leadership Advancement. “Share the Magic was and continues to be an amazing community partner.”
In addition to the Share the Magic, ILA’s 2025 Leonard Leadership Scholars worked on five other nonprofit and community projects over two semesters
- Students worked with The Cancer Foundation, a northeast Georgia-based nonprofit providing cancer patients and their families with housing, transportation, and medication assistance. The scholars developed an engagement plan to connect UGA student organizations with the nonprofit to build a sustainable volunteer pipeline.
- To address the increased need for housing in the Cartersville community, a group of scholars researched other communities, existing zoning issues, and cost-effective housing alternatives to develop a report — created in cooperation with the UGA Archway Partnership — that will allow local leaders to make informed decisions about . The housing issue.
- Students worked with the UGA Archway Partnership to create a comprehensive guide to starting a new business in Appling County. The guide is a one-stop resource housed in the Chamber of Commerce to answer questions about licensure, funding resources and community business ordinances.
- Another team worked with Fresh Wind Recovery Ministry — a nonprofit residential addiction recovery center — to develop a marketing and outreach plan to help boost awareness of the center’s mission and public support for its operation.
- Scholars worked with King’s Ridge Christian School in Alpharetta to develop a leadership development curriculum for their high school students, including some of the enrichment activities benefitting ILA students.