TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Another year and another chance to give back to Florida State University during their annual Great Give donation event. What started as a day to give back online, is now in it's sixth year and spans 36 hours. Last year's campaign raised over $200,000 in donations, all going to a number of causes.
Of course we've all heard that money makes the world go around, but in the case of universities, and scholarships, those words are all too true. Luckily for FSU, they have The Great Give.
"There are funds for studying abroad," says Robyn Bertram, the Donor Engagement Officer for FSU. "Most of them go straight to students, scholarship support, campus sustainability, so making the campus a greener community."
This year, a new cause has joined The Great Give, the Challenger Learning Center, an outreach facility of FAMU-FSU College of Engineering.
"To achieve our goals of outreach and K-12 education and STEM learning, we offer free and low-cost programming, says Christina Amrhein, the Marketing and Communications Director at the Challenger Learning Center.
This center helps stimulate children in the STEM fields. That's science, technology, engineering, and math. One way they do that is by hosting field trips within their Space Flight Simulation Room. These students are able to see what it's like to be an astronaut for a day, which really gets them excited about things they learn in the classroom.
"STEM isn't for everyone," says Amrhein. "Not everyone likes it, but when they are here, they are engaged. They're learning. They're excited. They want to do the math problems. They are just so engaged and so excited to learn, excited to leave and excited to head to the classroom and learn a little more about what what skills do I need to learn to do this as a career in the future."
The Challenger Learning Center hopes to raise $10,000 dollars during The Great Give.
The online donation site will close at 9 pm on Friday March 31, 2017.
To give back to FSU, visit: greatgive.fsu.edu
For a full list of organizations, causes, and projects supported by The Great Give, visit: spark.fsu.edu/Projects/AllAcademic
To donate directly to Challenger Learning Center during this donation event, visit: spark.fsu.edu/challenger
