Students Donate Funds and School Supplies to their Peers

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Students Donate Funds and School Supplies to their Peers

IN AN EFFORT TO PROMOTE EQUITY FOR ALL, and to raise awareness on racial and social justice, juniors Sara Chepkoit, C’22, and Madelin Sagastume, C’22, organized a fundraising campaign, which the university matched, to help Mount students and families who were struggling financially. The idea came to them during the summer.

“We knew a lot of people may have had financial struggles from COVID-19 and the climate of what was going on in the country and around the world,” said Chepkoit, a political science major and Spanish minor who is also on the track and field team. “We thought we should create the fund and take that burden off families.”

The women also organized a school supply drive and collected pens, pencils, backpacks, binders, folders, notebooks, paper, highlighters, scissors, index cards and more to distribute to any Mount student in need. Their donation tent was located in the Powell Hall parking lot as students returned to the Mount in August. Many faculty, staff and administrators also contributed with goods or monetary gifts.

Sagastume, who is a political science and Spanish double major and student-athlete, says she wanted to create a sense of unity. “We saw the political climate that our country is in, currently, and we wanted the Mount to feel like a home to us," she explained.

Leon Dixon, Ph.D., assistant dean of student life and director of the Center for Student Diversity helped the students facilitate their vision. Dixon, who has been at the Mount a little more than a year, previously worked in the Archdiocese of Detroit, where he served as director of Black Catholic Ministry and Native American Ministry.

“Hearing their passion on social justice was inspiring,” he said on President Trainor’s Live Significantly podcast. “We often talk about human dignity and the rights of the poor and vulnerable but we also talk about solidarity. This was their way of saying ‘I’m with you’ to all of the Mount community— especially those who have been marginalized and can’t afford to purchase books, supplies and feel included. I’ve been inspired by them.”

President Trainor agreed. “You have made a difference in several people’s lives with this. I’m so proud of what you’re doing.”