Author Archives | Sabrina Lapointe

KSC phonathon raises money for students in need

Most of the time when students receive a phone call from a number they don’t have they might assume one of two things; either it’s a telemarketer or a wrong number. 

But Keene State College dedicates time to calling alumni throughout the year to check in and see what’s new.

According to Assistant Director of Annual Giving-Phonathon Manager Lindsay Taflas, KSC Giving-Phonathon is a program on campus that employs about 20 students as callers and trains them to make phone calls to roughly 30,000 alumni a year.

In addition she said, these phone calls serve multiple purposes such as updating alumni on what changes have taken place at the school since they left, to hear about how they are doing now that they have graduated and lastly to seek a donation for the school. But above all, these calls are about establishing a relationship between current KSC students and former ones.

KSC junior Sam Spielberg is one of the student callers for phonathon. She gets to make these calls and hear from the alumni firsthand.

“We update them on how campus has changed since they graduated and we talk to them about what they’ve been doing since they graduated and then we do ask them for money. But it is a lot more than that, we’re building relationships and we’re keeping that connection with alumni,” Spielberg said.

Jack Chace / Equinox Staff

Jack Chace / Equinox Staff

According to Taflas, last year alone $126,867 was raised at KSC. The phonathon took part in raising about half that number, while other efforts came from mailing and other solicitations.

Taflas is in charge of overseeing and managing the phonathon program. She explained what this money that is raised is going towards.

“We’re raising money mostly for scholarship and financial aid. And it goes right back to students as current use. So the money we bring in is going right back out. And I just don’t think students have any idea that we’re out here actively trying to help them pay for school,” Taflas said.

Another student caller, sophomore Rachel Harmon said her experience as a caller has been a great way to learn more about Keene and create relationships with alumni. In addition to asking for donations, students get an opportunity to converse with alumni and chat about things only Keene State students would know.

“I think it helped me to connect with Keene a lot more. I actually had one alumni who gave me a bucket list. She said ‘You have to go to sunset rock, you have to climb Monadnock before the leaves fall, you have to eat at this certain restaurant, you have to shop at the co-op.’ They tell you things that you wouldn’t know about if you were just an average student at Keene,” Harmon said.

She went on to explain the misconceptions of Giving-Phonathon and what its true purpose is.

“A lot of people see it as a telemarketing type of thing but it’s really more about keeping in touch with your school and by donating just a little bit, it helps out. The main reason we call is to hear about if they’ve been back and we would rather they come back and visit than worry about donating. Because if you come back and you love it here, you’ll want to give back,” Harmon said.

The thought of donating to a school that you already poured a large sum of money into is an absurd thought to some, however, Spielberg said that donating a small amount goes further than many might realize.

“When you donate to the fund, that’s one more person in our pool of donors and what the state does is they look at our phonathon program and how many donors we have. The more donors we have, then the more eligible we are for grants from the state,” Spielberg said.

She continued, “So, even if you’re not donating a huge amount, you’re still one more number and the larger that number is, the more the state helps. They really just want to see that alumni are still involved with the school.”

Taflas said a main factor in Giving-Phonathon’s success would be the callers and their ability to establish strong relationships with alumni for the overall well-being of KSC and its current and future students.

“They [alumni] love to chat about their old days here at Keene and their adventures and the things that they were involved with. And I just think if you have a really talkative social person on the phone, it’s easy to build that relationship. And before you know it, they’re having that ten minute conversation and the alum feels happy about giving and wants to give back,” Taflas said.

 

Sabrina Lapointe can be contacted at slapointe@keene-equinox.com.

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on KSC phonathon raises money for students in need

Social media usage more common than ever both in and out of the classroom

Social media is commonly understood to be a double-edged sword. 

While it provides benefits and advantages, it can also simultaneously create issues.

Social media has emerged as a powerful tool in different circumstances.

It exists for recreational use, for work-related reasons, for self-expression and also more recently, for educational purposes.

Some of the current most-popular social media websites include Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, among many others, according to webtrends.com

But what happens when these social media sites start to become integrated within the classroom? Many may wonder whether it enhances the learning experience for the student, or if it burdens them?

Keene State College Communication and Philosophy Professor Brian Kanouse is one of many KSC professors who has used social media websites for his class.

“I have used Tumblr and Facebook at times to help with communication between the group, to develop group identity and ways of expressing themselves that they do more in their social lives,” Kanouse said.

Kanouse continued, “It can be a little hypnotic. It can help the student engage in a way that is a little more comfortable, but also can produce more interaction with the course.”

While Kanouse said he recognized the problems that using social media may pose, he also said that he believes, for the most part, it can have a positive influence on a student.

“It’s a technology and like anything else, it’s kind of neutral. For the people that get carried away with it, certainly it’s a problem, but a lot of students use it very positively. Overall it’s still pretty neutral,” Kanouse said.

Kanouse continued and said that, in his opinion, the more exposure students can get to it, the better.

The more comfortable they become with it the more it can enrich their learning experience.

“The more that we can use it for positive academic services without it being cheesy, the more it can be ingrained into everyday use—the better it’ll get,” Kanouse said.

Utilizing social media in the classroom also comes with its disadvantages according to some KSC students.

Although most students may be familiar with social media sites and how they operate, there is one factor working against them—distractions.

Philip Bergeron / Graphics Editor

Philip Bergeron / Graphics Editor

KSC junior Samantha Provencher said she is an avid social media user, both inside and outside of the classroom.

Despite her love for social media, she said it’s challenging to get work done when she constantly has the urge to check what’s new on Twitter, or Instagram.

“I know with myself just to sit down and write a paper, it’s every five minutes, it’s like an attachment with my phone. Every five minutes it’s like I need to check social media, it’s super distracting,” Provencher said.

Despite this distraction that lingers among nearly all college students who have social media accounts, many of them have also found it to be very useful to use social media within the classroom.  It’s something this generation of college students have grown to know and love, and to extend the use of it to the classroom has brought about some interesting things.

Provencher is enrolled in a social media class where she creates weekly blog posts which she has different people from her class write for or post responses.

She reported nothing but positive feedback about how this course is going for her.

“I like social media.  I think it’s a good way for people to market themselves,” Provencher said.

KSC junior Matthew Pereira reinforced this notion that social media use poses many challenges when it comes to concentration.

“I know that when me and my friends are doing homework and everyone’s on Twitter, everyone’s on Facebook. And personally when I study I do like two minutes of work and I’m like ‘Oh okay time for a break, let’s check Twitter, let’s check Facebook,’ it’s definitely a distraction,” Pereira said.

Getting past the distraction aspect of social media can be difficult for many.

But through these distractions, exploration of social media and what individuals can make of it, many hidden benefits may be discovered.

For some, it can even lead to job opportunities. That’s exactly what happened to Pereira.

What started out as simply signing up for VH1 surveys, finding out what he would like to see more of on the channel turned into something much greater.

Pereira is now sponsored by VH1 to log-on to Twitter and live-tweet during certain television shows and, in the end he is rewarded for it.

Once he receive his reward, Pereira said he must take a picture of himself with the prize and then tweet at VH1, thanking them for the gift.

Pereira said it is essentially product placement for the television network.

“Social media has really impacted me personally in a good way. I’m obsessed with pop culture and celebrities, so I kind of use my Twitter as a vice for that,” Pereira said.

 

Sabrina Lapointe can be contacted at slapointe@keene-equinox.com.

Posted in UncategorizedComments Off on Social media usage more common than ever both in and out of the classroom