By Ian Thomsen
Northeastern’s international community rose up in unprecedented numbers Thursday for the university’s eighth annual Giving Day.
The entrepreneurial festival generated $3.6 million from close to 14,000 donors — with both totals shattering records at Northeastern.
One hundred percent of donations go to the faculty, teams, student organizations and academic programs associated with Giving Day — directly helping students and faculty pursue their ambitions.
On Centennial Common at the Boston campus, giveaways of popcorn and ice cream were complemented by games of cornhole, high striker (ringing a bell with an oversized hammer) and other activities.
A record 108 challenges
Helping to drive the proceeds were a record 108 challenges (a 30% gain over last year). Overall, more than 1,000 faculty and staff made donations on Giving Day, another step up from one year ago.
The annual Challenge of the Colleges once again offered some of the biggest prizes of Giving Day, with a total of $80,000 to be divvied up among (1) the colleges that realize the largest increase in donors and (2) colleges that raise at least $10,000 by 8 p.m. on Giving Day.
The largest increase in donors was realized by the Bouvé College of Health Sciences, followed by the College of Engineering and the College of Professional Studies.
More than 80 student organizations set up fundraising tables throughout the Boston campus, promoting their clubs’ missions while seeking donations.
Six tables represented organizations associated with the College of Engineering, an annual leader in Giving Day support.
“We’ve realized that the key to success is promoting a sense of community and giving back to organizations that you’re a part of and that mean a lot to you,” Kyle Garvey, the College of Engineering’s director of development, said of the students who were working the tables. “The students want to be part of this.”
Student clubs of all varieties
Among the engineering organizations was the relatively new Combat Robotics club, which designs and constructs remote-controlled battlebots that seek to wreck opponents in competitions hosted by the National Havoc Robot League.
“It’s a place where you get to learn about the cutting edge of engineering,” said Lucas Tang, a third-year mechanical engineering and physics student who serves as project lead for the club. “You’re constricted by weight and you want to be stronger, you want to become more competitive — so it’s a lot of optimization, which I like.”
