Record number of organizations will participate in Student Philanthropy Week

More than 45 student organizations, a record number, will participate in Student Philanthropy Week, which runs October 5-12. 

During the week, students will rally support for their organizations and the campus community is encouraged to consider a gift. All participating student organizations are listed on the Student Philanthropy Week website, which includes information about gift matches and challenges.

Isabelle Moore, a junior engineering major, is a member of Grand Valley's student chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Moore said ASME is raising money to purchase materials for outreach events, including NASA's Micro-g-NExT challenge, in which collegiate teams across the country design and build tools that might help with a real space exploration problem.

"During Student Philanthropy Week, we will raise money to fund prototyping materials for our NASA Micro-g-NExT project so that we can prototype, build and test our device, and best represent GVSU engineering at NASA with a device we are proud of," Moore said.

Halle Evans, a senior majoring in music, participates in Euphoria, an a capella group. Evans said as a student organization, Euphoria relies heavily on crowdfunding.

"Student Philanthropy Week is everything to us," Evans said. "The funds raised during the week directly support our music, our travel to competitions and our ability to put on concerts for the Laker community. We are proud to be a group that Grand Valley can depend on to perform at important university events, including Convocation, Commencement and other campus traditions."

Laura Aikens, vice president for Institutional Advancement, said the record number of participating student organizations reflects the strong culture of leadership and philanthropy across GVSU. 

“Through Student Philanthropy Week, students are finding meaningful ways to invite others to support the organizations and causes that matter to them," Aikens said. "With a diverse range of student organizations participating, donors have many opportunities to support student-led initiatives and contribute to the communities and causes that make the Grand Valley experience so special.” 

Learn more or support an organization by visiting the Student Philanthropy Week website.

— Erin Jackson is a student writer for University Communications.