MU business students raise $15,536 and visibility to homeless children cause
A nonprofit organization created by a Manchester University business class has raised $15,356 and visibility about the growing number of homeless children. It's a rite of spring semester at Manchester: seniors in Case Studies in Business class set up a company and deliver their profits to charity.
The class company, H2.0 Drinkware, sold 1,121 water bottles to benefit Project Night Night, a national nonprofit that annually provides 25,000 night-time care packages for homeless children, reported company President Angelika Konik of Des Plaines, Ill.
"What your class has accomplished is remarkable. We will be able to reach more than 800 families in your community," said Jessica Silverman Bryan, deputy director of Project Night Night, in accepting the check during a Skype conversation with the class Tuesday.
Four area shelters for the homeless selected by the class will receive the Project Night Night care packages: Huntington House, and Vincent Village, The Rescue Mission and Interfaith Hospitality Network in Fort Wayne.
Each Night Night care package includes a "security" blanket, stuffed animal and book to help alleviate the trauma of homelessness. Bryan said one in 50 children will experience homelessness during their lifetimes, adding that often that situation is unseen. More information about Project Night Night is at projectnightnight.org.
The class project was not your average fundraiser. Annually each spring, Case Studies in Business class is organized just like a business, with an executive board and marketing, finance, human resources and operations teams. The 63 students in this year's class also completed 646 hours of community service, including an April 27 carnival for kids in Warvel Park in North Manchester for about 100 children.
Zeth Baker, vice president of operations, and other H2.0 officials discussed the successes and real-world lessons learned. Online sales of the unique water bottles that were just coming onto the market were greater than anticipated (customers from 11 states), leading to distribution challenges. "We were extremely busy," said Baker, of Waterloo, Ind. Never before had a Case Studies class attempted online sales. "We learned that we needed to place larger orders to control costs," said Tom Blake of Plymouth, Ind., vice president of finance.
Erika D. Smith: With new president, University of Indianapolis to take active role in shaping image, future of Southeastside
Erika D. Smith: With new president, University of Indianapolis to take active role in shaping image, future of Southeastside
When I first moved to Indianapolis, one of the earliest bits of advice I received was this: Don't go to the Southside. Where exactly on the Southside, I have no idea. Why I shouldn't go, I don't know that either — other than a vague rumor about racism.
I don't put much stock in rumors. But even now, even though I have plenty of friends who live south of Washington Street, the Southside to me still has a nebulous quality about it. For those who don't live in Beech Grove or Greenwood or close to Garfield Park, it's a side of our city with an identity defined more by rumors and misperceptions than reality.
So I had to laugh when moments after meeting Robert Manuel, the new president of the University of Indianapolis, he asked me: "How do you define the Southside?"
Indiana University Bloomington student named Truman Scholar
Co
ngratulations to Rahaf Safi an IU Bloomington junior & Indiana Campus Compact AmeriCorps Alum for her Truman Scholarship. She is one of only 62 undergraduates from 54 U.S. colleges and universities to receive the award. Each scholar receives $30,000 for graduate study along with priority admission and additional aid at premier graduate schools. Safi is the only Truman Scholar this year at a college or university in Indiana.
Safi has been deeply involved in civic activities and campus leadership at IU and in Bloomington. She founded and serves as president of the IU campus chapter of Oxfam America, a relief organization dedicated to finding lasting solutions to global hunger, poverty and injustice.
"It is an honor to be selected as a Truman Scholar," she said. "I am excited to meet the other Truman Scholars and learn about their experiences. IU is a great university that has provided me with the opportunity to interact with amazing faculty and staff and has given me the chance to turn my ideas into action."
IUPUI Selected as Finalist for Community Engagement Award
A community outreach initiative at IUPUI - Educating Our Community Together: A Partnership Between IUPUI and George Washington Community High School - has been selected as a recipient of one of five 2010 Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Awards.
Winners of the Outreach Scholarship Awards each receive a prize of $6,000 and qualify to compete for the 2010 C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award presented annually by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).
"These projects exemplify the outreach and engagement commitment of public universities," said APLU President Peter McPherson. "We salute each of these model engagement programs which feature students, faculty and administrators working in their community to improve the quality of life for all."
It marks the second civic engagement awards IUPUI has received in October.
IUPUI was among six universities that received a 2010 Higher Education Civic Engagement Award, given by The Washington Center, recognizing the campus for exceptional commitment to civic engagement and service learning.
Established in 2006, the Outreach Scholarship and Magrath University Community Engagement Awards recognize four-year public universities that have redesigned their learning, discovery and engagement functions to become more sympathetically and productively involved with their communities.
The C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award, made possible by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, includes $20,000 and a trophy. The award is named for C. Peter Magrath, APLU president from 1992-2005, and a leading advocate for public universities embracing the concept of outreach and community engagement. The Magrath Award will be announced during the APLU Annual Meeting, Nov. 14-16, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Dallas in Dallas, TX.
In 1995, the Indianapolis Public School system was forced to consolidate schools in the Near Westside neighborhoods due to falling enrollment. The closure of Washington High School, the educational and civic heart of the Near Westside neighborhood, and several elementary schools dealt a crushing blow.
Today, George Washington Community High School (GWCHS) houses grades 7-12 as a full service community school. The IUPUI-GWCHS partnership has expanded, enabling IUPUI to offer teacher education and service learning classes as GWCHS, provide service-based financial aid for college students to work in the building, and open and staff a community fitness center. GWCHS has been recognized nationally as a model for school/community partnerships and replication of the model is underway at three additional community high schools and several elementary schools.
The community outreach project is led by Robert Bringle, Ph.D., chancellor\'s professor of psychology and philanthropic studies and executive director of the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning and Starla Officer, Coordinator, Office of Neighborhood Partnerships, in the IUPUI Center for Service and Learning.
Feeding the Hungry
At the Harvest Soup Kitchen in Muncie, Indiana, Ball State University professor Lois Altman and her small cadre of culinary volunteers are actively seeking solutions to both problems while providing meals to as many as 125 people a day, six days a week.
As a professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Altman is a chef specializing in quantity food production. Her students make all of the food served in the Allegre Restaurant on campus.
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