A group of students can make a huge difference in their community as shown by the Foundation of Young Philanthropists on Wednesday afternoon.

The group awarded $5,000 to the Vera House at a reception held in the Founders Room at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Vera House is a nonprofit organization that focuses on ending domestic abuse and sexual violence.

The foundation was formed out of a philanthropy class called ‘Philanthropy and You,’ taught by Carol Dwyer, and is the first of its kind. The class was made of undergraduate public affairs majors who are passionate about the concept of philanthropy, or ‘the love of humanity.’

‘It’s unlike any other class,’ said Heather Fountaine, junior broadcast journalism and policy studies major.

Instead of just learning about the concept of philanthropy, the class’ goal was to go through the process of being philanthropic: obtaining money, sending out grant applications to organizations, receiving applications and deciding where that money should go.

The concept of creating a curriculum around philanthropy was initiated by Helene Kahn, an alumna who graduated in 2010 with a degree in policy studies. Then she started working for Syracuse University’s Office of Development with a mission to create a culture of philanthropy throughout campus.

Kahn said there is a lot more than meets the eye with philanthropy. She said it isn’t just about giving away money but takes leadership, time and talent.

Dong Lee, a junior policy studies and international relations major, said some people have a negative perception about those who work for nonprofits and took this class to learn more about the actual process.

‘Although you can’t see it, there are individuals who do a lot more than people think,’ he said.

For the first step, gathering money, Kahn reached out to Judy Mower, SU alumna and major supporter of the Syracuse community.

Mower said if she could start all over again, she would go into the field of philanthropy. She said that she wanted the students to understand the process of not only giving away grants, but the process of gathering them. So instead of giving the students the whole $5,000, Mower encouraged the students to raise part of the money themselves.

The final grant was made of donations from Mower, other SU alumni and Maxwell development officers, including Kahn.

Grace Davis, junior policy studies and international relations major, said the hardest part of the class was choosing which organization to award the money to. Members of the class visited six possible organizations.

Davis said many factors went into choosing the organization to give the money to. The class wanted to choose an organization they felt strongly about and made a criteria based on factors such as how many people were involved in the organization and how passionate they were about their program.

‘We were blessed with great applications,’ she said.

In the end, the class gave the money to Vera House, specifically for its youth education program, which is the organization’s most underfunded program, said Melissa Marrone, Vera House’s program administrator, who spoke at the reception.

The youth education program at Vera House focuses on educating and talking to children about abuse. Katie Hoole, who was elected as a chairman for the class, spoke at the reception and said that in light of the recent events at Pennsylvania State University and at SU, helping fund a program like this was important now more than ever.

The class will meet again next year, with a new group of students and the same goal. Dwyer, the class instructor, said she hopes the students see that philanthropy is a worthwhile career path.

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Published on December 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

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