This year, some creative approaches for fundraising were developed by CUNY SPS administration. Every year, #CUNYTuesday occurs on the first Tuesday of December. For the past several years, SPS has hosted an event to provide donors, students, alumni, faculty, and administration an opportunity to meet and celebrate the school’s accomplishments. This year, in addition to a reception, guests were invited to attend tech workshops that were organized by graduates from the data science department.

Alumni Relations Specialist Nidia Cordova developed the concept for this new event approach. “CUNY SPS alumni are amazing, and I want to give them a platform to share their talents and expertise with the CUNY SPS community…  Alumni and students continuously ask for ways to help and give back to the school.”

James Hamski (M.S. Data Analytics ’17), Saheli Kar (M.S. Data Analytics ’17), Niteen Kumar (M.S. Data Science ’19) and Duubar Villabos Jimenez (M.S. Data Science ’19) each chaired a break-out session that covered a tech topic.

Sarah Krusemark, a recent graduate of CUNY SPS who now works in Student Services at SPS, also came up with a novel approach. Sarah is a devoted fan of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails (NIN). By chance, she landed several limited edition  NIN necklaces. To the band’s loyalists, these are very valuable memorabilia, fetching prices of over $500 per piece.

Rather than reselling the items for her own benefit, Sarah raffled them for the SPS ACE scholarship program on CUNYTuesday. To buy a chance at the necklace, participants donated in $5 increments and sent a screenshot to Sarah to document the transaction. The more donor contributed, the more chances to win. “I have always made an effort to raise funds on CUNYTuesday, with some years being more successful than others. One year, I only raised $50, but the next year when I was in the ACE program, I raised over $500. I know from personal experience how impactful this scholarship can be and even though I do not have much money to give myself, I still try to raise money for it.”  When asked about the results of the fundraising, Sarah said, “I have received a few donations and as of right now, and I have raised over $100. There have been some technical issues with donations today, but I have at least two more people who are donating once those get resolved.”

Even though SPS is one of the smaller campuses in CUNY, SPS ranks in the top 11 fundraising CUNY campuses. The SPS goal for #CUNYTuesday is an ambitious $46,000. The creative approaches of Sarah and Nidia helped bring in the current total of $45,985. The deadline for contributions has been extended to the end of the month, so there is still time to make the goal.

Sarah had suggestions for students who would like to donate, but lack the funds. “If someone has a skill or talent such as being an artist, writer, photographer, or even unique professional skills, they could offer those services as a raffle prize.”

This #CUNYTuesday set new standards that challenge students to think creatively about ways to give back. To donate, visit sps.cuny.edu/CUNYTuesdayGIVE.