Student team posts highest participation in fund drive

A new fundraising team made up of ESU student organizations posted the university's highest participation rate in the recent Campus Scholarship Challenge.

The student team reported 94 percent participation in a drive, which also included teams made up of faculty and staff from various offices and departments. According to Associated Student Government president Christina Kerns, students understand that it is important to support funding for the Presidential Academic Awards.

"For a lot of us, it's our first introduction to ESU when we get the letter inviting us to apply for the scholarship our junior year of high school," said Kerns. "It's the reason many of us decided to come to Emporia State."

The student team was made up of fraternities, sororities, academic clubs, honor societies, recreation and religious groups, residence halls, community service groups and special interest organizations. Students raised money through a penny drive in the Memorial Union and direct contributions from the university's 115 student organizations. The residential life office also donated two weeks of proceeds from coin-operated laundry machines.

According to Kerns, the student team hopes to get an earlier start next year with a fundraiser festival or concert in the fall. "A lot of the organizations were challenging other, and I expect we will see more now that they know the process. We will probably see more challenges between greek chapters."

"We'd love to get 100 percent participation next year, and we're looking for inventive and successful ways to get the students involved," she said.

Total campus participation was 69.4 percent, passing last year's record 63 percent. The national average for on-campus participation in scholarship drives is 24 percent.
ESU President Kay Schallenkamp presented Kerns a check for $39,190 raised on campus at a ceremony Friday. She passed a baton to Jon Geitz, Deborah Huth, and Sheila and Kurt Steinkuhler -- the co-chairs of the Community Scholarship Challenge that starts this month.

Last Updated July 2, 2007>