Having come fifth in last year‘s Challenge for Charity (C4C) competition, this year‘s UC Davis MBA team is looking to up its game.
A national nonprofit organization, C4C pits eight of the West Coast‘s business schools to compete against each other.
The competition works as such: Participants accumulate volunteer hours and money raised by each school and divide them per capita. Each MBA student is taken into account for the competition‘s ultimate outcome.
UC Davis students work with two charities – the Northern California Special Olympics (NCSO) and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento.
“It‘s a hands-on, giving back experience,“ said Kara Salzman, co-chair for the UC Davis C4C club and first-year MBA student. “Volunteering is always memorable.“
Even when no big event is organized, volunteers still head out every other week to the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento.
“We help the kids with homework, we play with them. We just try to have fun,“ said Nicholas Wong, C4C co-chair and first-year MBA student.
The current economic situation has had a noticed effect in the number of events that the NCSO has been able to put on. This has further motivated to group to help out.
“We‘ve definitely noticed that less events are being put on by [NCSO}, so we‘re trying to raise more money to help,“ Wong said.
Club members‘ business skills have also benefited from their experiences.
“Part of being a good manager is being a good role model,“ Salzman said. “Volunteering takes a lot of patience, and we‘re working with people from all sorts of backgrounds. It‘s a learning experience.“
Once the period‘s total volunteer hours and donations have been counted, the college teams will compete in an athletic weekend that will help determine the contest‘s final winner in April.
Competing against UC Davis are: Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, the University of Southern California and the University of Washington. The annual winner receiving the illustrious “golden briefcase.“
The co-chairs are both busy organizing their fifth-annual wine tasting event and auction which takes place on Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. The event will be held Walter A. Buehler Alumni and Visitor‘s Center, and is 21 and up.
Tickets are available online at ucdc4c.org.
CHRISTOPHER BONE can be reached at features@theaggie.orgXXX.
