A late-night studying session last September led to the formation of NU Gives Back, a volunteering organization that will hold its first day of service May 21.
“My best friend David Chase and I were just spitballing things that would actually make an impact on campus,” said co-founder Kevin Short, a Medill sophomore.
A few months later, Short, Weinberg sophomore Chase, SESP sophomore Katie Florez and Weinberg sophomore Sam Lozoff started NU Gives Back with the help of Natalie Furlett, associate director for the Center for Student Involvement.
The event will send students, faculty, staff and alumni to about 30 sites next Saturday, ending with a barbecue on the Lakefill, Florez said. Sites are sprinkled throughout the area and support a range of causes, from the Evanston American Cancer Society and Senior Connections to the Recyclery and Lincoln Park Community Center. Participants will receive two additional free meals and a T-shirt. But more important than the perks, NU Gives Back is an effort to unite Northwestern with one all-encompassing service day.
“People are very active on this campus but not together and in a cohesive kind of way,” said SESP freshman Rebecca Rego, a site coordinator and one of 20 club members. “This aims to be like, ‘Yes, you’re super involved, but for one day let’s do it together.'”
Rego said she learned about NU Gives Back after participating in the Freshman Urban Program: All four co-founders are FUP counselors.
“That just was kind of our network base, so a lot of the initial staff were just people that we knew through FUP,” Short said. “We also had some relationships built with different nonprofits in the area and some of the skills in how service can work, essentially.”
Though much of the club’s staff is involved with FUP, Short stressed that the purpose of NU Gives Back is to make connections across the NU community and different organizations.
“The way service is structured at Northwestern, we felt that a lot of the volunteer or service days targeted a specific niche audience, usually a social justice audience,” Short said. “But there wasn’t really an inclusive, full-scale effort.”
Florez pointed out that Texas A&M University, which NU Gives Back has been in contact with regarding logistics throughout the planning process, has held a similar event for about 20 years that attracts thousands of participants.
“I think our big lofty dream for NU Gives Back was that it would be one of those things at Northwestern that you have to do. You have to paint the Rock. You have to do Dance Marathon,” she said. “Dance Marathon serves a great cause raising so much money, but you don’t really get to experience the lives of the people that you’re working with.And I think service goes above and beyond that calling.”
Heading up the marketing committee, Short said he hoped to “target communities that aren’t just on the NCDC listserv blast, that aren’t going to be attuned to every social justice interest thing.” Short said he took an “unconventional approach,” using social media and promotional YouTube videos. In addition, he said NU Gives Back focused on face-to-face recruiting by sending members to student organizations and encouraging them to sign up teams.
“Everything is about broadening our scope and reaching the widest sector of the Northwestern (community) as possible,” he said.
Weinberg freshman Tessa Owens said she signed up with the Sexual Health & Assault Peer Educators team after Florez gave a presentation at a meeting.
“Volunteering was a big part of what I did in high school, so I wanted to continue that, but I just haven’t had the time,” she said. “I thought this was a really cool idea to have everyone in Northwestern volunteer on the same day and make a difference.”
Participants can sign up with club-based teams or as individuals. So far, about 170 student volunteers and one faculty member have signed up, Florez said. However, she explained that other organizations and athletic teams have verbally pledged members but haven’t yet registered.
“Our dream is to have like 400 people,” Florez said. “We’re going to keep pushing for that. I think there’s value in maintaining your dreams and not cutting them short, but realistically I think we’re going to hope to have 250 to 300.”
Florez acknowledged planning has been “a little bit disorganized” because this is NU Gives Back’s inaugural year. She said the club probably started contacting nonprofit organizations later than it would like to next year, and it is difficult to pin down these organizations despite their enthusiasm for the event. Nevertheless, Florez said she was encouraged by how eager the sites she contacted were to have the help of NU students.
“It’s like all you have to do is tap into the organization and the need for just a couple extra hands in there,” she said.
NU students’ movement outside of the campus bubble is the purpose of NU Gives Back, Short said.
“So frequently we just shuttle back and forth between Norris and Panera and the lovely establishment of The Keg of Evanston, and maybe if we’re super adventurous we’ll go to Old Orchard Mall,” Short said. “But there really is the world past the confines of Ridge.”
