Chegg Employees Assist Community at Family Harvest Days

Chegg for Good is a social service and charitable offshoot of the popular online textbook rental and sales company Chegg in California. The company regularly sets aside paid workdays for its employees to volunteer in their communities. Chegg staff members recently worked with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to distribute food during one of the organization’s Family Harvest Days in San Jose.

Family Harvest Days offer both high-quality food and educational programming to low-income families with children under 18. Volunteers at the events assist with set-up and food distribution, sign up new participants in the Second Harvest program, and help attendees carry food to their vehicles.

The Chegg employees were eager to unload and distribute the fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables, frozen turkeys, eggs, and milk that would make a big difference in the lives of San Jose children. Second Harvest clients joined in and helped out as volunteers before receiving their own much-needed supplies. Without the services of Second Harvest, many children and teens from food-insecure households would have few nutritious meals at home.

Rick Bolander, the managing director of Redwood City-based Gabriel Venture Partners, holds a board seat at Chegg and other corporations that have benefited from his entrepreneurial expertise.

Rick Bolander: Driving Early-Stage Success at Persistent Systems

With a reputation for nurturing successful early-stage ventures in the information technology, clean tech, and communications spheres, Rick Bolander serves as Co-founder and Managing Director of Gabriel Venture Partners (GVP). He has sat on the boards of a number of funded ventures, including IPWireless, NetScaler, Tut Systems, Inc., and Persistent Systems Ltd.

An established India-headquartered firm focused on technology services and the software-product life cycle, Persistent Systems has partnered with diverse technology brands over the past 22 years. The firm collaborates integrally with corporate clients to develop top-tier solutions spanning the consumer products, health care, life sciences, and financial sectors. Services extend through all stages of a product’s life cycle, including concept, design, engineering, and ongoing support and maintenance. The firm has entered into high-profile partnerships with industry leaders such as IBM Corp., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems, Inc.

With GVP, Rick Bolander is currently active on the boards of the tween-focused safe mobile education and mobile-services provider Kajeet, Inc., and digital textbook rental firm Chegg Inc.

Rick Bolander: Chegg for Good and Music Education

A Director on the Board for Chegg, a textbook rental and educational services company, Rick Bolander has advised the company in its efforts to attract college student clients. Along with providing tutoring assistance and an online marketplace, Chegg conducts community service and outreach under Chegg for Good.

In August of 2012, Chegg announced a contest for college students which offered the opportunity to win money for their music departments as well as a concert from singer Taylor Swift. The company encouraged participants to vote for their universities every day for a month to win the tally. The schools with the top five volumes of votes will each receive a $10,000 grant for their music departments. The winning institution earns the chance to host Taylor Swift.

In announcing the contest, Chegg cited the benefits of music education, including a stronger ability to communicate, a greater sense of camaraderie with classmates, and qualities of cooperation and self-confidence.

Chegg: Helping Students Lower Textbook Expenses By Rick Bolander

Rick Bolander, co-founder and Managing Partner of Northern California-based Gabriel Venture Partners, has assisted in funding and developing numerous start-up companies that have gone on to achieve success. Among these, Mr. Bolander invested in and sits on the board of Chegg Inc., a textbook rental company that translates commitment to education into action. Chegg has saved students significant amounts of money via its streamlined online operations.

Paying for college has become even more challenging now that publishers routinely include expensive material such as CD-ROMs, guides, and workbooks that professors may not even require. It is not uncommon for a single college-level textbook to cost well in excess of $100. Multiply that by several courses per semester, and it is understandable that students are actively seeking more cost-efficient strategies. Recent research has shown that a typical undergraduate at a private college spends more than $1,200 for textbooks alone.

Chegg’s rental program provides a highly effective alternative to the traditional practice of purchasing new textbooks at the beginning of a semester. Comparison shopping websites show that renting a book from Chegg often costs half as much as the cheapest new or used book from other sites. And similar to the popular Netflix DVD rental service, Chegg even provides a box for students to use when they return their books. For more information, visit Chegg.com.

Chegg for Good Visits Africa by Rick Bolander

Many know Chegg as the online portal that connects students with academic resources. However, aside from providing homework help, course information, textbook options, and scholarship connections, Chegg also gives students a way to make a difference. Through the company’s philanthropic arm, Chegg for Good, eight college students earned the opportunity to make an educational visit to South Africa and Zambia this past July.

Chegg For Good teamed up with rock superstar Bono’s international advocacy group, ONE, to help students learn firsthand about foreign aid, advocacy, and service. To investigate global health issues, agricultural challenges, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, the group met with student advocates, young local entrepreneurs and emerging leaders.

As they return to campus, these social entrepreneurs have pledged to use this new knowledge to foster awareness of these and other serious issues faced by millions of African students, such as extreme poverty and lack of access to first-rate educational institutions. These students are to be commended for their dedication to becoming catalysts for positive change.

About the Author: A member of Chegg’s Board of Directors, Rick Bolander consulted for the African Communications Group in Tanzania early in his career. Bolander is the Managing Director of Gabriel Venture Partners, based in Redwood Shores, California.