Matthew Murphy, Campus Carrier Deputy News Editor
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| Ryder McEntyre, graphics editor Catherine Cottage residents are raising awareness about girls’ education and fundraising for the organization Girl Up. |
Students living in Catherine Cottage are participating in the year of service program by raising money and awareness for girls’ education.
“The year of service is a Residence Life program,” Olivia Paige, a resident of Catherine Cottage, said.
Paige said the students who live in the cottages develop a service project that they carry out through the year.
“[The cottage residents] come up with a service project that they want to complete for that year, and they work on that through the year,” Paige said.
The residents of Catherine Cottage have chosen to focus their service project on girls’ education in developing countries.
The residents said they support the organization Girl Up, a campaign of the United Nations Foundation which focuses on empowering girls and helping them receive an education.
Sophomore Mackenzie Ross, another resident of Catherine Cottage, said the residents chose to sponsor Girl Up because of their familiarity with the organization.
“We knew about it. It was good to have an organization we were familiar with when we were starting a completely new process,” Ross said.
Paige said the goal of the project is to raise money and awareness for the cause while educating others in the Rome and Berry communities.
“Our goal is to raise $255, which would sponsor three girls through the program,” Paige said. “Another goal is to just educate as many people as we can in the Rome community and on Berry’s campus about the issue of education and the lack thereof in developing countries.”
Catherine Cottage’s first event was a showing of the film “Girl Rising” on Nov. 6. “Girl Rising” tells the stories of nine girls around the world and their struggles to receive an education.
“We have only done one event thus far, ‘Girl Rising’, which was the film, and we took donations at that [from] anyone who was willing to give,” Ross said. “We had a table in Krannert to promote the movie and we had a donation help out for that too.”
Ross said the film was chosen for several reasons, including its connection to the cause and its helpfulness for Berry students.
“It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, to help people in Berry, educate them, get our name out there, get the project out and help Berry students in the process,” Ross said.
The film screening was co-sponsored by several other campus organizations including Residence Life, the Student Activities Office, Berry College Volunteer Services, KCAB, the Women’s and Gender Studies program and EMPOWER.
Paige said there were approximately 120 people at the showing of the film.
Ross said Catherine Cottage is also planning to participate in other events to collect more donations for the cause.
“Nov. 23, we will be co-sponsoring Miss Berry with KCAB,” Ross said. “Half of the proceeds from Miss Berry will go to Girl Up.”
Paige said that their cause is one that goes unknown to most – making it important to address.
“One thing that I think that ours is unique is that it’s kind of overlooked,” Paige said. “A lot of people don’t know that a lot of girls aren’t able to go to school worldwide.”
Both Paige and Ross agree that this is a project that they hope to carry on into next year.
Catherine Cottage’s first event was a showing of the film “Girl Rising” on Nov. 6. “Girl Rising” tells the stories of nine girls around the world and their struggles to receive an education.
“We have only done one event thus far, ‘Girl Rising’, which was the film, and we took donations at that [from] anyone who was willing to give,” Ross said. “We had a table in Krannert to promote the movie, and we had a donation help out for that too.”
Ross said the film was chosen for several reasons, including its connection to the cause and its helpfulness for Berry students.
“It just seemed like the perfect opportunity, to help people in Berry, educate them, get our name out there, get the project out and help Berry students in the process,” Ross said.
The film screening was co-sponsored by several other campus organizations including Residence Life, the Student Activities Office, Berry College Volunteer Services, KCAB, the Women’s and Gender Studies program and EMPOWER.
Paige said there were approximately 120 people at the showing of the film.
Ross said Catherine Cottage is also planning to participate in other events to collect more donations for the cause.
“Nov. 23, we will be co-sponsoring Miss Berry with KCAB,” Ross said. “Half of the proceeds from Miss Berry will go to Girl Up.”
Paige said that their cause is one that goes unknown to most—making it important to address.
“A lot of people don’t know that a lot of girls aren’t able to go to school worldwide,” Paige said.
Both Paige and Ross agree that this is a project that they hope to carry on into next year.