A Letter from the Desk of Billal
This month's letter is from Billal Mabizari, NDMV IT Support Specialist and NDMV alumnus, 2019-2020. He typically works from his laptop in various places and is always there to support staff when they run into a technical issue.He has a heart to serve and has learned that service can look a lot of ways! Enjoy this month's "Letter From the Desk of...or rather from the Laptop of."
I never planned to move into IT when I started working with NDMV. It happened because there were gaps, and someone needed to step in. I used to think service was all about showing up. Now I understand it is also about creating the conditions that allow others to show up and engage. At each step, I found myself stepping into whatever was needed next.
I first got connected to Notre Dame Mission Volunteers through my time at the Village Learning Place in Baltimore, Maryland. I started there as a work-study student during my freshman year at Johns Hopkins, and over time it became a place I genuinely cared about.
By my senior year, I had been there for a while, but I also started to feel a little stuck. I was capped at 20 hours a week and mostly in an assistant role. I wanted to do more than just help out. I wanted to take ownership of something.
Through a Jane Goodall Roots & Shoots fellowship, I created a cultural program for the students. We did weekly story times focused on different countries, usually paired with a snack we made together. One week, we read Madeline and talked about France while they tried chèvre and jam on crackers. Another week, we made spring rolls while learning about Vietnam.
They were curious, engaged, and proud of what they created. And for me, it was the first time something really felt like mine. I was not just assisting anymore. I was building something and seeing how it could impact others.
There is a real benefit to that. These tools can remove friction, reduce manual work, and help organizations like NDMV operate more effectively. They can make it easier to coordinate across teams, track impact, and support volunteers in ways that would have been much harder before.
At the same time, there is a real concern that comes with that growth. It is becoming easier to replace interaction with efficiency. Easier to communicate without actually connecting. Easier to optimize systems while losing sight of the people those systems are meant to serve.
That is the tension we are navigating. Technology does not inherently create distance, but it can if we are not intentional about how we use it.
Service has always been rooted in human connection. That part does not change, no matter how advanced our tools become. The goal is not to choose between technology and connection. It is to use one to support the other.
Billal (left) and John (our Director of Impact, Right) at an All Staff meeting last month.
That means being intentional about what we build and how we use it. It means asking whether the tools we create are bringing people closer together or quietly pulling them apart. It means recognizing that efficiency is not the same as impact, and that connection cannot be automated.
The systems we build should make it easier for people to show up for each other, not harder. They should remove barriers, not create new ones. They should support relationships, not replace them.
That is the responsibility that comes with defining what this work looks like moving forward.
As NDMV celebrates 35 years, I think about all the ways people contribute to this mission. Some serve directly in communities. Others support the work behind the scenes.
If you are thinking about how to stay connected to NDMV, or how give back, now is a meaningful time to do so. One way you can support “behind the scenes” is by donating towards our organization.
Your support helps ensure that this work continues, so that people can keep showing up for one another in ways that technology alone never could.
Thank you for being part of it,
Billal Mabizari
