Showing Aggies how to give back, MSC Lead’s first Aggie Vision program will focus on educating students on nonprofit organizations.
Leslyn Felder, executive director of MSC Lead’s community service subcommittee and senior communication major, said the idea for Aggie Vision originated with their advisor who wanted to create a forum and educational program on service.
Felder said the committee wanted to focus on one area this year, and they chose nonprofit awareness.
“A lot of people want to get into nonprofits and a lot of people don’t actually know how to go in that route and don’t have the right resources to,” Felder said. “So we basically wanted to give students the opportunity to not only get more information about how other people are involved in nonprofits, but also to give them hands-on experience in it.”
As tax-exempt organizations, William Brown, associate professor and director of the nonprofit management certificate program at the Bush school, said nonprofits have an advantage over other organizations, but are limited in what they can do with proceeds generated. Brown said these proceeds can come from a variety of sources such as donations, government funding and service fees.
“Why would we grant a tax exemption has to do with the fact that we believe that these organizations are doing something that will benefit our society,” Brown said. “We want to encourage them and support them.”
The event will feature two speakers during a catered breakfast and in the afternoon, attendees will travel to different nonprofits in the area to learn more about their individual missions.
Speaker Gabriella Medina, public service graduate student and chairwoman of the George Bush School Public Service Organization, will instruct students on how they can get involved in nonprofits and her personal plans to pursue a career involving nonprofits.
The second speaker, Edward Tarlton, founded Help Consulting, Inc., an organization that helps students find a path to college. Tarlton will be speaking on his own experiences in a nonprofit.
Jessica Lochte, director of the Aggie Vision community service subcommittee and junior interdisciplinary studies major, said the event will provide students information on how to give back now and after graduation.
Felder said the goal is to make Aggie Vision an annual event. Registration is closed for this year’s event, but Felder said interested students should keep looking out for next year’s Aggie Vision.
“We really want to give the opportunity to a lot of students,” Felder said. “Hopefully it’ll be morphed into this almost Big Event-like event, where it started small and now look at it.”