An initiative born in living-room focus teams now sends UGA college students world wide
Pupil Trang Nguyen wasn’t certain what to anticipate throughout her freshman 12 months on the College of Georgia. She definitely didn’t anticipate attending to spend every week exploring Moroccan cities and using a camel by way of the Sahara Desert alongside different freshmen and UGA school. However final month, she discovered herself doing all that and extra.
Had been it not for the generosity of a gaggle of donors organized across the similar time Nguyen was admitted to UGA, she and 20 different college students may not have had this expertise.
Georgia Ladies Give, one in every of UGA’s most profitable fundraising initiatives, celebrated its one-year anniversary with an on-campus occasion on March 21 and 22. That occasion culminated with a luncheon that introduced collectively GWG donors and college students like Nguyen who participated in Join Overseas, a brand new research overseas program for first-year college students. This system, which is the primary beneficiary of GWG’s campus priorities fund, held its inaugural journeys throughout this 12 months’s spring break.
Lotenne Nwokolo ’27 speaks with Georgia Ladies Give spring occasion attendees about her expertise with Join Overseas throughout the occasion’s luncheon on March 22 on the Richard B. Russell Jr. Particular Collections Libraries Constructing. (Photograph by Justin Evans)
“I’m greater than grateful for these Join Overseas alternatives and the help we obtained from Georgia Ladies Give. It has allowed me an opportunity to discover a very new world, to considerably broaden my mindset and to be extra culturally conscious and culturally educated,” Nguyen stated on the occasion.
Join Overseas applications join first-year college students to friends, school and distinctive experiences over UGA’s spring break in Cuba, Italy, the UK or Morocco. The applications’ give attention to immersion and group for an viewers not historically lively in research overseas — solely about 1% of individuals every year are freshmen — aligned with Georgia Ladies Give’s priorities.
Launched in March 2023 by way of the efforts of a gaggle of UGA Basis trustees, GWG is a nationwide, women-directed fundraising group inviting extra ladies to grow to be philanthropists and interact extra deeply with the college. Within the early levels of GWG, small occasions have been hosted by donors throughout the nation, fostering the tradition of group, dialog and impact-focused philanthropy that’s central to the group.
GWG was constructed across the thought of collective philanthropy: effecting essentially the most change by way of concentrated giving. The group does this by asking donors to designate their presents to any of three particular funds: a merit-based scholarship endowment, a research away endowment and the campus priorities fund. Each endowments provide distinct types of scholar help, however the campus priorities fund directs support to essential college applications on the discretion of the group’s govt committee.
As of as we speak, 118 donors have contributed almost $3 million to GWG’s three funds, far exceeding the group’s launch purpose of fifty donors by June 2024.
UGA Vice Presidents Jill Walton (improvement and alumni relations), Kathy Pharr (advertising and marketing and communications, additionally chief of workers of the Workplace of the President), Marisa Pagnattaro (instruction, additionally senior vice provost for tutorial planning) and Jennifer Frum (public service and outreach) reply questions as a part of a panel dialogue throughout Georgia Ladies Give’s spring occasion on March 21 within the UGA Chapel. (Photograph by Justin Evans)
“I’m simply so proud and really grateful for all of those devoted ladies,” stated Jill S. Walton, UGA’s vice chairman for improvement and alumni relations. “I actually am a Georgia Ladies Give donor, so watching this group develop and seeing the influence of our giving has been inspiring,”
With a 12 months underneath their belts, the group was in a position to make use of their March occasion to discover the influence they’ve made. Join Overseas workers and college students delivered the keynote handle on the occasion’s concluding luncheon, the place Join Overseas college students sat at every desk, sharing private experiences with occasion attendees.
GWG donors are presently working to develop each the group’s influence and the group itself. Georgia Ladies Give is now aiming for 150 donors by the top of June, and given their momentum and the dedication of their donors, they really feel that concentrate on is inside attain.
“This can be a group that was constructed and grown by ladies connecting to ladies by way of sincere dialog, a willingness to develop and be taught, and a dedication to creating a distinction. That mixture is uncommon,” stated Elizabeth Correll Richards, chair of the GWG govt committee.
“I plan to work diligently with the present members to establish extra ladies excited by impacting the lives of scholars so our group could make a much bigger distinction every year. The bigger our group, the bigger our influence.”
