Grant Kleiser C’17

Name: Grant Kleiser

School: College of Arts and Sciences

Major: History and International Relations

Hometown: New York, NY

Activities involved in at Penn:

Tour Manager for the Pennchants a-capella group, PennGreen Pre-orientation program leader, Community Service Chair for FIJI, Member of Fossil Free Penn, Special Events Cooridnator for Eco-Reps, Fundraising Director for Alternate Spring Break

What activity are you most involved with? 

Alternate Spring Break

How did you get involved with ASB?

I saw a Facebook message to sign up for a trip my freshman year and thought it was a great program and something I wanted to get involved with during spring break.  

Tell me about your role in ASB.

I coordinate and run our various fundraising events for ASB and try to raise as much money as possible to keep trip costs low and make these experiences accessible to as many students as possible.

Tell me a little bit more about ASB and what you guys do. 

We organize seven trips in the spring and two in the winter, which allow Penn students to spend a week of their breaks doing service trips in various places around the United States. About half of our trips are with Habitat for Humanity, and the other are various other community service and educational trips (such as my trip this year to Austin where we did urban farming). They are a great way to get to know more people at Penn, do some meaningful service, and see a different area of the country.

What’s a favorite memory you have from your time in ASB?

This year we went on the last night to a great Barbeque restaurant in Texas, and afterwards to a local carnival. It was great going around the fair and just hanging out with everyone after a long week of farming at an urban farm in Austin (even though I almost threw up all that good BBQ after one of the rides).

What’s a Funny or embarrassing story from your time in ASB?

Last year, I went to New Bern, North Carolina with an amazing and crazy group. The place we were staying didn’t have showers, so we had to go to the local YMCA everyday after work. One day we forgot towels, and so the guys on the trip decided to walk around the boys bathroom in nothing but our work hats. The funniest reaction we got was from a very old southern man who looked at us and just said, “You sure you all are straight?” That gave a big laugh and made us realize we might have gotten a bit too close during the course of the trip.