An impromptu trip to Rwanda in 2004 changed Stephen Paletta's life. Five years later, he is hoping a group of Cornell students will have a life-altering journey of their own to the same country.

Paletta '87, winner of the reality TV show "Oprah's Big Give" in April 2008, is helping to organize a service-learning trip to Rwanda for eight Cornell students starting June 4. The students, whose main requirement is "a heart for the developing world," will spend three weeks in the central African country working with Paletta's nonprofit organization, the International Education Exchange (IEE).

Paletta, who majored in civil engineering at Cornell and played lacrosse, founded IEE after his 2004 last-minute service trip with friends to Rwanda. IEE supports primary schools in Rwanda with teacher training, construction projects and pen-pal programs between Rwandan and U.S. schools.

As the "Big Give" victor, Paletta won $1 million, half of which he was required to donate to philanthropic endeavors. He used the money to establish a second nonprofit organization, called Stephen's Journey, which highlights the work of social entrepreneurs and philanthropists all over the world.

After his Oprah win, Paletta contacted the Cornell Public Service Center with the idea of sponsoring a student trip to Rwanda through IEE. Now working with five Rwandan primary schools, the organization's goal is to partner with 1,000 schools by 2020, with support of Rwanda's government, Paletta explained.

"Because of the show and because of some of the money I'd won and had been able to give back to IEE, we decided to grow it tremendously," Paletta said.

Paletta said he would like the students to design the trip based on their interests. Though they will be spending time primarily in schools, he said activities might range from volunteering in classrooms to helping out on a construction site. The students have raised more than $20,000 to cover the cost of the trip. This past semester, they attended serving-learning seminars with John Weiss, associate professor of history, and Robin Remick, the ILR School's director of international programs.

In addition to spending much of their time in schools training teachers in English language and computer skills, the students also will be working with Dar Caldwell '04 to install solar panels at the primary school in Rwinkwavu.

Before developing his passion for philanthropy, Paletta was a poster child for worldly success, first entering the family business, then starting the company Westmoreland Construction with his brother. Another company he started in 2004, Renaissance Integrated Solutions, was shut down after Hurricane Katrina destroyed one of its main sites. Through that experience, he began developing more of an interest in philanthropy.

While at Cornell, Paletta was an All-American lacrosse player who helped lead Cornell's 1987 squad to the national championship game. He met his wife, Christine, at Cornell while they were both in rehab for sports injuries. But the self-described white kid from Westchester who arrived in Ithaca with a "distinct and narrow worldview" also considers Cornell his first window into a much wider world.

"At Cornell, my eyes and ears and mind were opened to a completely different world, a much more diverse world, and a world that thought very differently than I had thought," Paletta said.