Nearly every morning of his life, against the backdrop of an 18-hole golf course, Jim Perkins walks his Golden Retriever, Zeus, on a five-mile hike through the slopes and valleys of the Hartfield community on the outskirts of Kennett Square. It is a refreshing daily ritual and one that is occasionally hard on his 58-year-old knees, but the degree of challenge pales in comparison to the two weeks he spent in November in the country of Nepal in the service of others -- a trip that has had a tremendous impact on his life.

For the past 17 years, Perkins has been an executive vice president and account manager for Computershare, a global market leader in transfer agency and share registration, employee equity plans, mortgage servicing and stakeholder communications. With over 14,000 employees around the world, the company has become known for the relationships it has formed with its investors, employees and customers.

Computershare has also received high praise for its humanitarian efforts that include its Change a Life foundation, a community giving program that supports global and local projects that address poverty and empower communities to create long-term, sustainable change in developing countries and those that are closer to home. For the past five years, Change a Life has partnered with the World Youth International School (WYI) in the Gokarna region of Nepal, where since it first opened in 1999, teachers have provided a rich and dynamic education through shared culture and experiences.

Through donations from staff and matching funds and fundraising activities, Computershare has helped the school upgrade its facilities, including a new IT college that is scheduled to accept students beginning in 2025. In 2022, Computershare funded the construction of the Change a Life Boarding Centre, adjacent to the school, which accommodates 50 students.

The ‘purple’ company

This year’s initiative would open the door for Computershare to address a persistent and unfortunate reality for many of the school’s 650 students: the need for additional buses to transport them from school to home. Under the current operation, the school only had two buses that required the vehicles to make multiple daily trips – often to remote villages -- every school day. Consequently, because there were not enough buses for efficient transportation, some students were arriving at WYI two hours before their first class and remained at the school well beyond the end of their school day. 

When it was announced that Computershare would sponsor a trip for 25 of its worldwide employees to raise funding for the school, more than $140,000 was raised (the original goal was $100,000) from staff donations to purchase two more buses, Perkins jumped at the chance to join his colleagues. The school used the extra funds to help support the wages for additional teachers. 

“Computershare is fully immersed in the concept of being ‘purple’ – seen in the way we treat each other, our corporate partners and our clients with kindness and respect,” Perkins said. “When the idea first came about to work with World Youth International, I was all in from the start, and while I didn’t first comprehend the overall concept for the trip, young people have always been very important to me. With four daughters of my own, anything I could do to for the younger generations is going to better our world.”

In early November, Perkins flew from Philadelphia to Kathmandu – the capital of Nepal – where he joined his colleagues for a two-day series of organizational meetings that would pave the entire mission for the trip. Soon after a short flight to the City of Pokhara, Perkins joined a hiking trek that took the group through some of the most breathtaking vistas they had ever seen. Assisted by several sherpas and guides, the group hiked through the Annapurna Himalayan mountain range, along roads and dirt pathways, suspension bridges and 5,800 stone steps they climbed on the second day. At nearly every stretch, they passed by people hauling food, wood and other supplies on mules and donkeys. 

“As hard as it was to do what we were doing physically, it was helpful to know that what we were doing was only going to last seven days,” Perkins said. “The people of Nepal that we passed were doing it every day of their lives. I walk five miles with my dog and then I sit at my desk and do all the things I do for Computershare, and then I do the things as a father and a husband and a community member that are required of me. 

“In contrast, I saw these people who don’t have a lot of the material possessions we have, things that we take for granted. Everywhere, we were greeted with smiles and ‘Namaste’s.’ This trip made me appreciate the sense of community we felt from what our company was doing over there.”

‘Through another lens’

Eventually, the Computershare group arrived at the World Youth International School, where for the next several days they were given a tour of the school and its educational mission and introduced to many of its students and their various individual projects – from dance recitals to science experiments.

“I am grateful to the group for undertaking such a difficult hike to encourage people to contribute to the school,” said Terry Hoey, WYI’s general manager. “The buses will bring great benefits for the school’s students because they will help to prevent them waiting for long periods for school to start and finish or making long journeys to and from school on foot.” 

“Everyone at Computershare is really proud of the trekking team for their dedication to improving the lives of school children in Gokarna,” said Stuart Irving, global CEO of Computershare.  “Their efforts reflect Computershare’s commitment to creating a positive impact on communities globally.”

Already five years underway, Computershare’s Change a Life partnership with WYI continues to serve as a financial bedrock of the school’s ten-year initiative, said Lucy Newcombe, chief people and ESG officer at Computershare. 

“We were impressed by WYI’s down-to-earth approach and its ability to work with a large global company,” Newcombe said. “WYI’s ten-year vision of a financially self-sustaining future for the Gokarna school really appealed to us. It gave us the opportunity to shape, and become involved in, the entire project at the school starting in 2018.

“The idea of an annual trek helps to engage employees as part of a longer-term initiative and offers our people an opportunity to see their donations in action.”

At one point during his time at the school, Perkins read the personal essays of many students that were posted along the school’s hallways. 

“Their essays are not only well-written, the content of their writing expresses the love, joy and the appreciation they have for life,” he said. “While at first impression, you may not think that these young people have been blessed with much of anything, but if you look through another lens, you realize how much of a genuinely full and blessed life they have with what they have been given, and I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from this. 

“After meeting these students, it lit a flame under all of us that said, ‘We can and we have to do more,’” Perkins added. “Having now had the opportunity to speak with them and their teachers and administrators, we know it’s not just about making the journey there and then turning the lights off when we’re done. Each one of us is individually motivated, and through Computershare, all of us want to do more.”

For more information about Computershare’s Change a Life initiative, visithttps://www.computershare.com/corporate/about-us/corporate-responsibility/community .

To add your contribution to the donations Computershare has already received, visit https://worldyouth.org.au/fundraising/James-Perkins.

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].