K-State students have given 43,000 gifts toward helping other students.
As of June 30, 2017, K-State students have given 43,000 gifts to raise a grand total of $1,148,798.71 in the years since K-State Proud, a nationally-recognized fundraising campaign, began. Kansas State University Student Foundation launched the campaign to advance “Students Helping Students.” In 2016-2017 alone, K-Staters raised $95,155 in support of Proud’s Student Opportunity fund to help alleviate fellow students’ temporary financial hardships so they can stay in school.
Each year during the K-State Proud campaign, students give to support people – fellow students – they most often do not know; they help pay emergency medical bills, tuition payments after the death of a parent, and groceries when a student must decide to buy groceries or books. It’s part of being Family.
The Student Foundation receives all Student Opportunity Award applications; a committee which includes student representatives meets weekly in consultation with the university’s Office of Student Financial Assistance to determine awards.
“K-State Proud would never want a student to have to choose between food and their future, their education,” said Gaby Riggs, 2017-2018 K-State Proud co-chair. “The coolest thing about this campaign is that people at K-State really grasp the message and the purpose. The culture we have at K-State is very unique, it’s giving and servant leadership through and through.”
“Since K-State Proud-funded Student Opportunity Awards are a last resort resource for students, the donations go to a variety of places,” said Kevin Kellerman, vice president of student opportunity awards for Student Foundation. “The most common is covering tuition charges to the university. A few examples of recent awards include helping a graduate student travel to get life-saving medical treatment and a K-State Polytechnic student who — as a single mother —needed help to purchase food for her children as she completed her degree.”
Each year K-State Proud sponsors a design contest to invite students to create a unique Proud logo. The logo should appeal to the student body and capture the K-State experience and will be used in print, on t-shirts and online. Logo contest rules for next year’s K-State Proud campaign can be found on the here.
Philanthropic contributions to K-State are coordinated by the Kansas State University Foundation.
