In an effort to go beyond coffee-making and catering, The Corp has expanded their philanthropic efforts with two new scholarships for members of the Georgetown community.
On Thursday night, The Corp’s Board of Directors selected the winners of the Kaleidoscope scholarship, which is given to five students who embody the spirit of cura personalis, and the Student Group Scholarships, which recognized the contributions of five campus organizations. Each student or group winner was awarded $500.
“We really wanted to engage students and groups about the Georgetown community and Georgetown experience,” said Tom Lipinsky (MSB ’11), the outgoing chairman of The Corp’s Philanthropy Committee.
The Student Group Scholarship emerged from the board’s desire to continue to reinvest The Corp’s profits in groups that improve and enhance life on the Hilltop.
“Our thought was, what better way to do so than by giving financial thank yous to some of the groups that have made substantial improvements to the Georgetown experience over the past year,” Lipinsky said.
DC Students Speak, One World Youth Movement, the Georgetown Phantoms, WGTB Radio and the Grassroot Hoyas were each recognized for their service.
Several of the groups were recognized for their work in the larger Georgetown community. DC Students Speak was awarded the scholarship to support their plans for a “silent concert” to raise awareness of the new DC noise ordinance, while One World Youth Movement was honored for their work in training undergraduate students to volunteer in D.C. public schools. WGTB, who will use the award to fund their upcoming spring concert, was recognized for their efforts to expand their focus to the greater D.C. community.
The Grassroot Hoyas, a group of student athletes, were awarded the scholarship for their work to raise money for AIDS research, while the Phantoms received the award to help release a new CD of their work for the campus community, Lipinsky said.
The only requisite for winning the Kaleidoscope Scholarship was that the person had really embraced all aspects of the Georgetown experience.
“We played up the idea that each person’s time at Georgetown is unique,” he said, adding that the scholarship committee was not looking to honor specific accomplishments.
The Kaleidoscope Scholarship will be awarded to Emily Durfee (SFS ’11), Ryan Muldoon (COL ’13), Ceyda Erten (SFS ’13), Meghan McCormick (MSB ’11) and Arianna Pattek (SFS ’12).
Lipinsky said that in order to attract the most applicants, the committee decided to cap the Kaleidoscope’s application at one question. The board of directors and four other members of the campus community read the applications and deliberated Thursday night before deciding on the five winners for each scholarship.
Lipinsky said The Corp, which also runs a textbook scholarship for freshmen at the beginning of the year, will announce one more scholarship in April.
