According to the Stanford Office of Student Activities Web site, there are currently 580 registered student groups. In case you didn’t know, we have everything from “85 Broads, Stanford Chapter,” an international, business-focused women’s empowerment group, to the “World Peace Buddhists.” Other student groups with cool names include the “Rubik’s Cube Association of Stanford,” and the “Troposomatic Breakdance Crew.” Isn’t college great?

Beyond these perennial classics, new groups are created constantly — two more groups were registered since I started this column last week. Over time, however, many of these new organizations cave when leaders graduate, funding dries up or motivation wanes.

Here in the Silicon Valley, in the land of start-ups, we hear all the time that most new businesses fail. It would seem the same is true for student ventures. New groups, like businesses, face an uphill battle of getting organized, recruiting labor and finding their niches in the market. And as students, everyone has classes to worry about, too.

But for the founders of Right to Education for All Children (REACH), a new group launched this quarter, their motivation to succeed is deeply personal. International students Aleya Dhanji, Thomas Igeme and Rowza Rumma were inspired to create REACH out of a common appreciation of their own top-rate education.

As all three can attest, getting into Stanford as an international student is tough — Dhanji and Igeme are from Kenya, and Rumma from Bangladesh — and is even more difficult if you come from a country without an advanced education system.

“We definitely were the privileged few who could afford to dream big,” Rumma said in a REACH presentation last week. “But most of our populations can’t.”

“To have so many people be illiterate,” she added, “it’s almost like they’re blind for the rest of their lives.”

Though it is still in its developmental stages, REACH hopes to promote literacy initiatives in developing countries, starting with Kenya and Bangladesh, where the founders have roots and connections.

When I sat down with Rumma this week to talk about REACH, I asked her why the founders of REACH felt it was necessary to create a new group instead of working with an existing organization with similar goals. Rumma already works with the Muslim Students Awareness Network as well as Asha Stanford, a national group that raises money for education in India.

“We didn’t want it to be a peripheral focus of another student group,” she replied, noting that Kenya and Bangladesh tend to receive less attention from Stanford’s social activist community. In case this sounds territorial, it is worth noting that one of REACH’s first official functions was a mixer where other student groups and local NGOs were invited to discuss possibilities for collaboration.

Rumma said she and the other members of REACH are fully aware of the challenges of building a new organization and then making it last. “Our motivation comes from a very clean and very simple idea of service,” she said. “You get what you work for, and we know we want to work for REACH to succeed.”

Asked whether REACH would be able to outlast its founders given their personal connections to the two target counties, Rumma remained unfazed. “[The founders] all know we’re going to graduate in two years, and we don’t mean for REACH to vanish,” she said. “We began with these countries because we have the most experience with them and the most knowledge on them. If there’s anyone who wants to focus on a different country, they’re welcome to join us and lead that initiative.”

In our environment of hyperconsciousness about resume boosting, it is easy to be skeptical about new student groups. But the sheer size of the OSA list serves as a good reminder that every year some of the start-ups survive, and even flourish. Another promising new organization, Project Read, recently held a highly publicized spelling bee fundraiser to support school libraries in India. Though the official attendance wasn’t reported, The Daily described the audience as a “sea of people.”

Rumma hopes REACH will also be able to help give others the chance for a better education. “Even though we begin our droplets small,” she said, “these tiny droplets will form an ocean some day.”

Michael is in no way affiliated with but is rooting for REACH, and Project Read. He’d also like to know when the Troposomatic Breakdance Crew is performing. Let him know at wilkerson "at" stanford.edu.