When 45 UNL business students offered up a grant of $10,000 to a local non-profit to help make Lincoln a better place, 27 organizations came calling with great ideas and strong goals.
One application stood out above the rest to students in the Leading People and Projects class, a 400-level management course in the College of Business Administration whose semester-long project was to work together to find a worthy cause.
The Lincoln Public Schools Foundation’s “Hear to Learn” project was the winner of the $10,000. After being given the money by the Learning by Giving Foundation, the CBA students worked through the process of identifying a local non-profit that could best use the money.
“We wanted a passionate organization and a project that would have a long-term impact,” said James Verhoeff, a senior marketing and management major enrolled in the course.
“Hear to Learn” is a parent-initiated and teacher supported pilot program that is installing 150 classroom amplification systems in K-5 LPS elementary schools — Clinton, West Lincoln, Prescott, Sheridan and Kloefkorn — for the 2013-2014 school year. Systems consist of a main speaker with two microphones that project sound evenly across classrooms, allowing students to hear and learn no matter where they choose to sit.
Teachers will wear a microphone on a lanyard around their neck and students will have a microphone to pass around, Verhoeff said. The funds awarded by the class will specifically help install systems at McPhee Elementary, which is in the shadow of the State Capitol building.
“Students really were swayed that this equipment will help McPhee students for 15 to 20 years,” said course instructor Colleen Jones.
This is the second time Jones has taught the course with the goal to have a positive impact on Lincoln while increasing the connection between students and non-profit groups. At the same time, students learned how to organize the classroom into separate committees and effectively administer the donation process.
The class was broken into six groups, each with a different task. A selection committee went through each application and chose a top five for the class to vote on.
Twenty-seven local non-profits applied for the funds. That’s down from 33 last fall, Jones said, but the quality of applications was very similar. From the 27 applications, students chose City Impact, Habitat for Humanity, CEDARS, the Boys and Girls Club and the LPS Foundation as finalists.
A check was presented to Sharon Wherry, president of the Foundation for Lincoln Public Schools on Dec. 4 at an event held at the Sheldon Museum of Art.
“I’m very proud of how the students made a difficult decision,” Jones said. “I feel comfortable, they feel comfortable and I look forward to doing it again next fall.”
