In hopes of maintaining relationships with alumni, parents and friends of APU, the Office of University Advancement hosted We Give Thanks on April 8-9 on Cougar Walk. The event took place both days from 12-3 p.m. and had a variety of activities set up, including writing thank-you notes to donors.

Through these relationships, the office seeks to raise funds for the university for technology, student scholarships, student life activities, facility upgrades and recruiting and retaining faculty. This is one of the stewardship events put on by the University Advancement Office to ensure donations and express gratitude as a student body.

“These are all individual people, so basically, unlike a public school, where there are corporations that sponsor them, we are thanking individuals. We do have sponsorships with corporations and businesses, but they donate to us based on our alumni, parent and friend participation,” Phon-a-thon manager Michaela Scholz said. “I don’t know a lot about public schools, but the participation they see from private donors makes us look more appealing to a corporate sponsor.”

Scholz explained that corporations like to know that APU has loyal and trusting relationships with its individual donors before they get involved.

“We send these cards out just to kind of get students into the mindset that it is important to give back and also realize that scholarship isn’t just a discount on your tuition. I mean, yes, you earn that discount, but that money has to come from somewhere and the donors contribute to that, so it’s just kind of an awareness, educational thing for our students to take part in, but also stewardship for our donors,” Scholz said.

During the event, workers encouraged students to write on the thank-you cards the office provided. The next table was a raffle question game. The point of this was to educate students by asking questions such as: “Is a scholarship just a discount on my tuition?” or “Is phonathon a job on campus?” The University Advancement Office even offered incentives, such as the chance to win gift cards from Chipotle, Jamba Juice and the University Bookstore for entering the raffle.

“I think the We Give Thanks event is a good idea because when we get money, we don’t really think about who is giving it to us, and this is our one chance to say thank you. I feel since we don’t get the chance to say it every day, we should at least show our gratitude through our actions, such as getting good grades or succeeding in our fields of study, because these scholarships give us a chance to come to this school and accomplish great things, A lot of us wouldn’t be able to afford college without these scholarships,” said senior communication studies major Nick Perez.

Apart from this event, the University Advancement Office is largely involved with endowments and all forms of donations in order to help provide an affordable education. Some of the university’s friends, both individuals and corporations, include the Howards, the Kern Family Foundation, the Dillons and Don Marshburn.

There is more information about the Office of University Advancement on its website www.apu.edu/advancement/fund/ or in its office, located in the Felix Event Center on West Campus.