Communication class helps orphans: Students raise funds for peers

News1 April 19, 2010 at 1:10 pm Comments are Disabled

By Reuben Jones, Staff Writer Buying textbooks, purchasing school supplies and decorating a school dorm room can all be expensive challenges for cash-strapped college students. But for students without parents, and those who do not have family resources to count on, the challenge can be even harder. This is a problem one class at George Mason University hopes to put a dent in. COMM 389: Public Relations for Associations and Nonprofits has 26 students dedicated to the assignment of raising money and supporting the Orphan Foundation of America (OFA). LaKesha Anderson has taught the class for the past four semesters. She explains that, in the class, students learn to “write persuasively for nonprofits and develop a grant proposal.” Every semester she has split the class into groups to focus their efforts on different nonprofit organizations. This year, however, she decided to have the entire class focus on one organization. This has been a welcomed change. “Everyone is really into it, and the class is very involved,” said Anderson. The Orphan Foundation of America began in 1986 and, since then, has awarded millions of dollars in scholarships and grants to more than 3,500 students. The communication class is organized into four […]