Our Interview with Student Leadership Award Winner, M3C Fellows of Edgewood College

The Jenzabar Foundation interviewed Stacie Pinzl, from the M3C Fellows at Edgewood College. M3C Fellows at Edgewood was another one of The Jenzabar Foundation’s Student Leadership Award winners from this year.

Check out the below to learn how the program got it’s start, how fund raising initiatives helped it grow, and what Stacie and her members have planned for the upcoming school year.

The Jenzabar Foundation: As an M3C Fellow yourself, could you give us a bit more information about the M3C Fellows Program, including what makes one eligible for it and what being a member of it entails?

Initially, to apply to become an M3C fellow, students had to demonstrate a background in service and interest in continuing and increasing that work in the future. Students also had to demonstrate financial need or be the first in their family to attend college in order to be eligible to participate.

The M3C Fellows Program is a program that is designed to incorporate education with civic engagement among campuses across the Midwest.  In particular,  this program entails participation between service, training meetings and individual mentoring. Each individual student must complete 300 hours with partnerships in the community that meet the requirements of Americorps. When students complete the 300 hours at the end of one academic school year that are logged weekly, an education award is given to each student to use toward tuition, or federally funded student loans.

It is in the opening orientation that each student is provided a variety of community partners in which they chose which one best fits them. This allows students and the Edgewood College to form a solid base to form connections and service with throughout the year. Students are allowed to have other volunteer sites as long as they match the requirements of Americorps.  In addition, to create a more focused and close-knit group, training meetings are set up monthly to check-in and provide organization, time-management, motivation and set-up group projects.  Furthermore, students meet with individual mentors bi-weekly to reflect about their experiences and to keep on track as well as discuss any problems with their community service site.

TJF: This past year you single handedly organized a group of Edgewood College student volunteer to provide after-school support for one of Madison, Wisconsin’s largest homeless shelters. What advice do you have on how to successfully coordinate a campus volunteer program as successfully as you did? Have you considered using social media outlets such as Facebook or Twitter in your organization efforts or to recruit more student volunteers?

Awareness is the biggest key to develop a functioning volunteer program.  When I originally was given the position to organize this group it was on the verge of dying out. After talking with a few friends, I asked them about the program and if they had heard about it. The majority of students said that they hadn’t heard of it, but were interested in maybe going once to try it out. It was then that I knew the issue. There was interest it just wasn’t known campus wide. I immediately started sending out campus wide emails and putting up posters in the most eye catching places. Within a week, I had received emails from about 20 interested students. I kept them on a separate email group which I would then send reminder-emails to them. Also I kept encouraging them to bring friends along.

My only other advice is to keep in touch with the current volunteers through email with reminders of the upcoming dates. Also, a big hit, was an end of the year celebration with pizza to commemorate their hard work. I asked the head volunteer coordinator from the Salvation Army to come in and we had a reflection night. It’s not only the service that we do, but it’s in reflection that what we learn the other components that we never stopped to think about before we were in the active in service. 
            Considering it was my first year running this program, I was overwhelmed by the results of growth. I had not used Facebook or Twitter to recruit more volunteers. This is something  that I might try using in the future. However, I feel the results I am getting right now are satisfactory. There is always room for more growth and I think these media outlets could hold the potential for that.

TJF: Do you plan to continue your work with the after-school recreational program at the Madison shelter or are you looking into new volunteer projects for the upcoming school year?

I think it is really important to maintain the connections with the partnerships you already have. I think in particular with this after-school recreational program, there is a lot more that we as a campus can get involved with. I don’t see the need to search out new volunteer projects.  I will be studying abroad during my spring semester and with my involvement with this program, I am searching for a temporary replacement to take over my leadership. It is in this continuation of my work with the Salvation Army that not only do we deepen our relationship but continue our service for years to come.

TJF: Finally, how do you plan to use the $5,000 Jenzabar Foundation Student Leadership Award?

While we haven’t designated an extremely specific use for the funds yet we said in our application that we would use the funds to promote student service work through the M3C Fellows program and other service-centered campus programs.  Personally, I would like to see this money going towards creating the M3C Fellows into more of a family than just a campus organization. At the end of the last semester at our group meetings, there were students who still didn’t know the other thirteen members. I believe if we had taken an off campus retreat or did something fun we would have engaged  more. We would have had the opportunity to get to know each other better than in the two hour lecture meetings we had.   Additionally, at the end of this past semester we were able to obtain outside money different than the money given to us from Americorps. This money will be given to each M3C fellow after the completion of the 300 hours to increase the original education award. This money will help strengthen our group in awareness and expansion.

Our Interview with Student Leadership Award Winner, Up ’til Dawn at Keuka

The Jenzabar Foundation also spoke with Darla Sucy, Chair of the Up ‘til Dawn Program at Keuka College. The Up ‘til Dawn Program at Keuka, another one of The Jenzabar Foundation’s Student Leadership Award winners, raised a tremendous amount of money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital this past year.

Read on to learn more about how the program began, how it exceeded its fundraising goals and what it has planned for the upcoming school year.

The Jenzabar Foundation: Can you tell us how the Up ‘til Dawn program began at Keuka College this past year?

When the Student Activities Director at Keuka, Jennifer Furner, found out about the Up ‘til Dawn program, she immediately thought that it would be a perfect fit for our school. A handful of student leaders, many of us who knew little-to-nothing about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, were encouraged to be on the Executive Board. I can clearly remember the first meeting that we had- we went around the group and everyone said why they were interested in becoming involved. It was then that we found out that the majority of us had a personal connection to cancer patients. Personally, I had a good friend from childhood who I watched fight melanoma for years. After this session of sharing, we all were pretty fired up and ready to help St. Jude’s fight childhood cancer and other diseases. That’s all it took for us to get started.

TJF: Also, could you let us know what your specific role within the organization is?

I am the Team Chairperson on the Executive Board of Up ‘til Dawn at Keuka. I held this position last year and will continue to for the upcoming school year. My role is to encourage students and faculty to get involved in our major events each year through personal electronic invites as well as through word of mouth around campus.

TJF: The Up ‘til Dawn organization at Keuka College exceeded its $10,000 goal this year, raising $13,355 for St. Jude’s Research Hospital. This was more money than any other first year program and matched or exceeded funds raised by more established Up ‘til Dawn programs. What do you believe was the most significant contributing factor to your organization’s incredible success and do you have any new ideas for fundraising in 2010?

When I am asked what made Up ‘til Dawn so successful in its first year at Keuka, I can quickly and confidently answer: the Keuka community itself. We are a school that has strong foundations in community service. Many students, like myself, are willing to step up and become leaders for various causes and organizations, all while balancing our academic commitments. Simply encouraging others to join our fight against cancer and help us in our effort to raise awareness and funds for St. Jude’s proved to be an effective strategy for our first year.

In the 2009-2010 academic year we will be hosting some of the same events that we did in our start up year, as well as trying to incorporate some new ideas for fundraising. The letter writing campaign, car wash, charity bingo and pool movies all were successful this past year. We are also considering adding a chicken barbeque and pizza sales to get people involved in supporting our fundraising efforts.

TJF: I noticed that the Up ‘til Dawn program at Keuka has a Facebook group. What impact has this social media outlet had in helping to promote the organization, recruit students and raise awareness?

Social media, and Facebook in particular, has helped us greatly. Our Facebook page provides general information about the group, as well as a place for us to post updates on our fundraising goals. Also, when I posted a new Keuka event on Facebook, I was able to generate 20-30 responses in less than 10 minutes. We also made use of our college message board and email system to send out event notifications as well as biographies of children at St. Jude’s.

TJF: Finally, how do you plan to use the $5,000 Jenzabar Foundation Student Leadership Award?

We donated half of the $5,000 award to St. Jude’s Hospital. A portion of the award also helped to send two of our Executive Board members to Memphis, Tennessee to attend the Collegiate Leadership Seminar. The remainder of the award will help us with our fundraising and awareness events in the upcoming academic year.

Our Interview with Student Leadership Award Winner, The SENEA Project

Following the announcement of this year’s Student Leadership Award winners at JAM 2009, The Jenzabar Foundation spoke with several of the winning organization’s student representatives to hear more about their causes, campaigns and upcoming initiatives and goals.

Read on for our interview with the University of Tulsa’s Allison Johnston, to learn about her role with the SENEA project and the organization’s plans for using the new $5,000 grant.

The Jenzabar Foundation: For those unfamiliar with the SENEA Project, could you briefly describe what the team does and the results of the team’s work thus far? Also, what role do you have within the SENEA team?

The SENEA project is comprised of a group of students who research sustainable energy technologies for use in rural areas, particularly North East Asia and now Haiti as well. We then travel and implement these technologies, hoping to improve people’s access to energy in these areas.

At our site in the Jilin Province of China for example, we have technologies such as wind turbines, solar ovens, and biogas digesters set up around a shepherd’s house. We also have built a greenhouse designed to generate renewable power at this site. Future plans for the area include wind powered air compressors and human powered vehicles. In Haiti, a new extension of the SENEA project, we are researching the feasibility of biogas digesters and hydropower.

I personally am the Project Lead for SENEA, which means I oversee the research being done and when it comes time to implement our technologies, I make sure that it happens.

TJF: As you alluded to above, one of the most significant contributions of the SENEA Project has been the construction of a model home and greenhouse called the Sustainable Shepherd’s Residence (SSR). How does the SENEA team plan to further implement these SSRs into the region?

The SSR is really a model home. It includes more technology than is needed for the resident shepherd to survive. Consequently, people living in areas near the SSR are encourage to explore it, decide which technologies would work best for them, and then choose from amongst sets of plans that include various combinations of the available technologies. With directions written in a language that they can read and built using materials that they have access to, the SSRs can be implemented into these rural areas. The SENEA Project is conducting continuous research on new and better sustainable energy sources that could possible become included in the SSR as well as on other sites in the area to continue the spread of information.

TJF: The SENEA Project hopes to someday be able to present sustainable energy systems to millions of underprivileged minority residents in North East Asia. What is it like being part of such a large-scale service initiative, especially one that is centered on the other side of the globe?

Undertaking the SENEA project requires ambitious and dedicated students, willing to help people that they never have met. And for many, traveling across the globe to do this is an added incentive and increases initiative.

TJF: Finally, how does the SENEA project plan to use the $5,000 Jenzabar Foundation Student Leadership Award?

One of the nice things about working in North East Asia is the availability of cheap materials. Because of this, individual components of the SSR cost hundreds of dollars, rather than tens of thousands of dollars as they would in America. Therefore, $5,000 will go a long way in helping the SENEA project facilitate the advancement of the SSR in the form of materials and labor costs.

One of the downsides of working in China is the cost of travel just to get to the project site- often approaching $3,000 per person. Therefore, the Jenzabar Foundation Student Leadership Award will also be used to help meet travel costs, which are not yet funded.

You can read more about the University of Tulsa’s SENEA Project by visiting their website at

http://orgs.utulsa.edu/senea/index.htm.

Please Feel Free to Continue to Post Comments!

We would like to thank all the participants in the 2009 Student Leadership Award for their outstanding work and contributions. Although the winners have already been chosen, we still welcome and encourage comments on the Student Leadership Award blog articles. We have begun accepting comments this week, and will continue to do so!