I Don't Want It To End!

To try and put all of the knowledge, emotions, and action of this past term in the Students4Giving Class into one blog post is beyond my writing capacity. It was the best class I've taken so far in my academic pursuits! And it all led up to yesterday with the Awards Ceremony. It was the celebration of the gift we were given by the Learning By Giving Foundation and the Portland Community College Foundation- the ability to give to back to our community.  We were lucky enough to have some esteemed faculty members and former students speak during the ceremony and share their insights and inspirations with us. Thank you to: Maki Yoshinaga, a former student in the Students4Giving class; Phil Seder, the Dean of the Business Department; Lisa Avery, the President of the Sylvania Campus; and Ann Prater, the Executive Director of the PCC Foundation for joining us.
And the most exciting part and the reason for our hard work this term, handing out those big checks to three awesome organizations! Portland Homeless Family Solutions, Community Transitional School, and Right 2 Dream Too were the recipients this year of the Students4Giving grant. It was not an easy decision, because every organization that sent in a proposal was worthy of our grant money. I have a new-found respect for people that have to make these decisions everyday. It was a difficult balance between subjectively pulling heart-strings, objectively rating financial statements, and all the while sticking to our community needs focus.
 Our journey there was led by our knowledgeable and kind instructor, Cynthia Killingsworth. We learned how to analyze non-profit financial statements,  how to write a request for proposal,  how to create a grant evaluation rubric, and then most importantly, how to use all of this information to responsibly select a non-profit, or non-profits in our case,  that would have the best social return on our investment.
I want to thank my classmates who were insightful, professional, and helpful. I loved our discussions, and I learned heaps from you all! It gives me faith that we can be productive in alleviating suffering in our community.