Write a letter to your uncle telling him reason why you left your old school and three interesting thing you like from your new school ​

Ninety-eight IBM employees won't show up at the office this year. But they'll still get paid. It's called ``social service leave,'' a full, paid leave that some companies give employees to do civic projects for an extended time, in some cases as long as a year, with a guarantee of the same job or a comparable one afterward.

``Most nonprofit organizations don't function the way we do at IBM,'' says Doris Milles, who is bringing her business know-how to bear on a private nonprofit organization called Masspep (Massachusetts pre-engineering program).

A Boston-based IBM marketing support representative currently on leave, Ms. Milles aims to get very young minority students excited about careers in engineering.

``Speaking for myself, if you are a minority person, you know that a lot of things are out there but you don't know how to go about it,'' she says.

IBM is a giant player in a game played by corporations large and small that have learned they have something even more valuable than money to give to their communities: the time and talents of their employees.

the italian poet francesco petrarch did! (: