Do it for others

Two students saw a problem at local Fairview Elementary School. As the elementary school with the lowest socioeconomic status in Bloomington, some kids don’t have books to read. Through the Hutton Honors College, juniors Hannah Wert and Adeel Chaudhry are doing something about that.  

When Wert, the philanthropy coordinator of the Hutton Honors College Association, was searching for where to focus Hutton’s efforts, she came across Fairview Elementary. According to the Indiana Department of Education, 92 percent of Fairview students are on reduced or free lunch, and 85 percent live in government-subsidized housing. At home, many do not receive the support they need to enhance their education. With the help of Chaudhry, fundraising coordinator, the two won a $5,000 grant from the IU Student Foundation and launched the Hutton Philanthropic Initiative. They will kick it off April 16 with the Celebration of Reading, when Hutton volunteers will bring books to the students of Fairview. The reading program has also inspired other Hutton groups to work with the elementary school.

How did the two of you get involved with the Hutton Philanthropic Initiative?
Chaudhry: Hannah was trying to piece together what big philanthropy project we wanted to focus on this year, and the opportunity of the Metz Grant presented itself to us. So once we started centering around why we wanted to apply for this really large grant, we started to formulate our project along those lines. We wanted to do something more community-based because so many projects are nationally based.    

Why did you decide to help Fairview?
Wert: We were trying to decide what we wanted to do and we knew that Fairview was extremely underprivileged and we definitely wanted to help them out. Actually, the day of our launch party, it was announced that budget cuts for schools were going to eliminate librarians and, eventually, vice principals. So it kind of came at a good time – an unfortunate time, but a good time – so we could help continue to get the kids resources to read when they won’t have librarians next year.
Chaudhry: It was what we saw to be the most under-served community in Bloomington, education-wise. Hannah met with the assistant principal at Fairview to try and narrow down what the possible options would be. She said that most of the students don’t even have a book at home to read.

What do you think about the people who say this kind of community service is just a resume builder? Do you agree with that?
Chaudhry: I would disagree with that. I feel like the benefactors gain more than the beneficiaries. We have the opportunity to learn more from the students’ experiences than from what we already have.
Wert: I definitely don’t think it’s just a resume builder. I don’t think you can deny the fact that we all are college students who eventually are going to get jobs and people are going to put this on their resume, but I definitely think people want to do philanthropy work to give back. The students at Fairview really need the help and I don’t think that people would try to help them just to put it on their resume. I hope not.  

What do you think the two of you will get out of this as leaders?
Wert: Personally, I think it’s just amazing to see the transformation. Attempting to do a large event with Fairview has turned into an initiative for the entire Honors College. And I think it’s amazing to see that our leadership and our organization and our hard work has turned into such a large deal and definitely something that will affect the Fairview students.
Chaudhry: The biggest thing for me is to see how many volunteers are interested. Without this opportunity, they would never have the chance, but when presented with it, so many students have come together.