WATCH: UC s Frosh Deliver an Overwhelming Response to Helping Local Schoolchildren

A school supply drive reflecting an idea to introduce UC’s newest students to the values and principles of UC’s Just Community resulted in an overwhelming show of support from UC’s newest Bearcats. As a result, children attending Taft Elementary and Hughes Center will benefit.

UC’s 27 Student Orientation Leaders (SOLs) this month sorted through boxes and boxes of school supplies that more than 4,000 of UC’s newest students delivered at their summer Orientation.

The SOLs – upperclassmen who work through the summer to guide freshmen and their parents through Orientation – came up with the idea to help new students build connections with UC’s neighbors in the community. The SOLs recommended that the freshmen bring crayons, pencils, pens, water-based markers, erasers, glue, notebooks and pencil cases, then drop off their donations at Orientation check-in.

“Virtually every freshman was bringing in something – crayons, notebooks, markers, backpacks – the drive went really well,” says SOL Randy Leopold, a second-year major in aerospace engineering.

“One morning when I was about to deliver the official university welcome to our incoming Bearcats and their parents, I watched one family bring a backpack that was spilling over with materials that will be so helpful for our area schoolchildren,” says Caroline Miller, senior associate vice president for Enrollment Management. “Other families brought loaded grocery sacks. The generosity was heartwarming,” says Miller.

As a result, the SOLs in August worked to divide up the goodies between the schools. They sorted through thousands of supplies including

• 282 boxes of loose-leaf notebooks
• 517 folders
• 545 glue sticks
• 517 folders
• 310 pencil erasers
• 1,341 boxes of crayons
• 325 magic markers
• 81 highlighters
• 85 pairs of scissors
• 182 pencil cases

UC’s Orientation coordinators worked with UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) to reach out to UC’s K-12 partners that would benefit the most from the supply drive.

UC’s Just Community initiative is a nationally recognized program for civic education developed around the principles of pursuing scholarship and leadership, celebrating the uniqueness of each individual, practicing civility, embracing freedom and openness, seeking integrity, promoting justice, striving for excellence and accepting responsibility.

UC’s new student Orientation runs through Aug. 12. Fall quarter gets underway on Sept. 22.