Football standout fights malaria

If you haven't had the chance to sit and chat with Daniel Bocanegra, then you may think he's just another former football player at the University at Albany, but behind the curly locks and bright smile, there is a more complex individual.

The self-labeled "social entrepreneur" has received near-constant recognition in his time at UAlbany for his athletic, academic and service accomplishments. His accolades include making the Northeast Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll twice, the 2008 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, and recently receiving the 2009 Athletes Leadership Award.

Bocanegra, who was a quarterback for the Danes before switching to wide receiver before his junior season, came to Albany by way of Daly City, Calif. "I wanted to come to the East Coast to experience something new," he said. After playing football for Junipero Serra High School, Bocanegra said he just sent out tapes to "a bunch of East Coast schools" where he thought he could play football at a competitive level.

What he found at UAlbany was even greater than his two NEC Championship rings.

Bocanegra, a graduate student majoring in business, is the proud founder of the BUZZKILL Initiative, a non-profit organization designed to help fight malaria in Africa by supplying mosquito nets to those who can't afford them in the malaria-endemic countries.

Malaria kills about one to three million people annually, with 85 to 90 percent of those deaths occurring in sub-Saharan African countries, according to the UCLA Department of Epidemiology.

Mosquito nets have been proven to reduce "all-cause mortality," including malaria-related deaths, by about 20 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The BUZZKILL Initiative started about two-and-a-half months ago, while Bocanegra was at one of his multiple internships and had an epiphany. "I could be saving lives," the 22-year-old said. "There's nothing better than being in the business of helping people."

This summer, Bocanegra will be traveling to Ghana with funds raised by selling his "BUZZKILL" t-shirts. The $20 shirts, that read "Help fight malaria" on the back, will go toward Bocanegra's plane ticket and the cost of the nets.

In a relatively short time, Bocanegra has garnered a lot of support for the organization, ranging from student groups to fellow student-athletes, who not only purchased shirts, but spread the word as well.

The program has also received sponsors like Stuyvesant Plaza, the UAlbany Foundation, Michael Carmen of UAlbany's School of Business Dean's Advisory Board, and Dan Nolan of NPV Capital LLC, a private equity and real estate firm, Bocanegra said.

The trip to Ghana is a joint venture with a group of volunteers from the International Volunteer HQ, an organization based in New Zealand that "aims to provide volunteers with quality, flexible, safe and highly affordable volunteering placements in developing countries," according to their Web site.

Together, they will be "teaching English and the proper use of the nets," according to Bocanegra's blog, dannybocanegra.blogspot.com.

What drew Bocanegra to this particular cause was what he calls the "simplicity" of fighting the disease. "A $5 net can prevent this disease," he said.

Currently a one-man operation, Bocanegra said the BUZZKILL Initiative doesn't plan on staying nonprofit forever. Bocanegra hopes that program will expand, ultimately becoming a "sustainable business."

A businessman with his heart in the right place, Bocanegra said he "wants to be in business to do good, not evil."