Rishi Moudgil never thought of himself as an angel.

Even after he won the Caring for Children Angel Award from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Blue Care Network last fall, he pooh-poohed any sense of personal glory.

"The award wasn't really about me," insists Rishi, a 2000 University of Michigan graduate, "it was more about the thousands of volunteers who made K-grams work."

K-grams -- it's short for kids programs -- was formed to give U-M students a closer tie to the Ann Arbor community by linking them with kids from local elementary schools.

Over the course of the school year, the college-elementary school duos exchange a half-dozen letters, share in-class projects and top it all off with a spring bash at Ann Arbor's Crisler Arena where all of them -- there were 1,200 pairs this year -- come together for a mammoth show-and-tell day.

"A lot of people write off our generation for not wanting to do things for their communities," says Moudgil, 24. "But the big problem is that there haven't been a lot of opportunities. You set up something people can do and you'll be in demand."

Moudgil was frustrated by other student-oriented programs he'd seen. Some were one-shot classroom visits, while others insisted that volunteers be professionals.

Somewhere, he thought, there had to be a place for people like him.

Somewhere, there had to be a program that made it easier for college students to get involved.

As it turned out, there wasn't.

So armed with a background of volunteerism and a couple of years of business school, the Rochester Hills native launched K-grams.

That first year, it took him and a handful of friends just two weeks to find 750 student volunteers.

Today, K-grams has grown to include a year-round mentoring program and a reputation with educators so positive that Moudgil is looking for a way to begin the program on other college campuses.

"It's a wonderful program," says Lisa Teshima, a teacher at Ann Arbor's Northside Elementary School. "It fits perfectly with the writing curriculum. They love writing and receiving letters -- it's purposeful writing."

Last fall's award gave the program a shot in the arm. Not only did it carry a $5,000 prize, but it gave the program a much-needed dose of credibility.

"Most of us in the program are right out of college," says Moudgil, "so it was difficult to show people that we'd been around and knew what we were doing. This gave us instant validity."