UAFS aims to raise $60,000 in a day

The University of Arkansas at Fort Smith has 180 ambassadors across 15 initiative student projects for their Day of Giving on Thursday. The goal is to raise $60,000 in 24 hours.

The annual crowdfunding campaign aims to support scholarships, student experiences, and academic endeavors at the university.

Student ambassadors will activate and engage their communities to help each initiative reach its individual goal for conferences, supplies, travel costs and more.

On campus, a birthday party for the university's mascot, Numa Lion will give students a chance to celebrate the Day of Giving initiatives, all of which will be represented in person and online throughout the day. The party will be hosted on the university lawn from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Josh Simonds, assistant director for Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving explained that student organizations applied in December through January through the Day of Giving selection committee to have their initiative considered. Staff is chosen by the Board of the Alumni Engagement to select initiatives that will be highlighted for the year.

"We're seeing two times as many initiatives as we did in our kickoff year, last year in 2021," he said. "All of which are doing some really cool things across campus."

Simonds and his team provide the student organizations with a website featuring live trackers for each initiative's fundraising, an ambassador toolkit including graphics for social media posts, email templates for potential donors and more.

"Anything that we can do just to make this accessible to them, we do," Simonds said. "They should be able to go on their toolkit, pull materials and then ask their folks to support them in their endeavors and in their education."

One of the organizations hoping to raise $5,000 is the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students, MAPS. Medical school placement is very competitive, but UAFS students are well prepared thanks to "dedicated professors, exceptional research opportunities, and campus advocacy."

The MAPS team is raising funds to send pre-medical students to the Student National Medical Association Conferences, enabling them to learn from leaders in medicine.

The group also has Medical College Admission Test strategy sessions, personal statement workshops and even a suture clinic in which pre-med students learn how to perform stitching of the skin with a suture kit.

Their MCAT strategy sessions are through Princeton Review, which is very expensive course material. But because the organization was able to raise money through the Day of Giving last year, they received a discount for this material needed for students' studying.

Emma Booker, a senior in pre-med and vice president of MAPS, said she wanted to advocate for the club and its minority group so they can have the Princeton Review material for all members to succeed on the test.

"I'd like to see it continued because getting my MCAT (material) made the difference to me," she said. "I know the club will grow just because of the (medical) school that's here so it means a lot to have the money to be able to keep it going."

Since the Arkansas Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, ARCOM, and the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education are nearby, the group has networked with the schools for resources previously. Booker said it's important that the organization stays intact because of their relationship to the medical schools in Fort Smith.

"We want to keep it that way (intact). So it's easier to get in from UAFS straight up to ARCOM," she said.

MAPS is one of the first student organizations to lead their own initiative within the Day of Giving, Simonds said.

"(They have) led their own charge into this process to support themselves and create these things for themselves," he said. "And they've done a great job so I'm excited to see what they do."

Booker said she wants the community to be aware that their of their club because pre-med students are getting "more and more hard to come by."

"The fact that there's groups that want to start and want to get involved and want to go back to med schools here... Stay local is our thing, we like that there's going to be a group here, it's just a really great club to start and keep," she said.

Another student organization hoping to raise funding for its members is the university's Digital Lions eSports Program. The electronic sports program has four teams who started in early August. At the collegiate level, eSports has been "exploding" over the last 5 to 10 years, according to club advisor and Media Communication assistant professor Nicki Stancil.

"We are only one of a handful of public universities, even in Arkansas that has this," she said.

Teams are more prevalent at local high schools, and many of the university's current players came from those schools.

"We had 'den day' last weekend and we spoke to quite a few students who are ready to come and try out. So we have a lot of really interested local support for that," Stancil said.

The teams are also hoping to host invitationals in the fall in which high school students can come try out for the university's teams.

Two of the teams are computer-based, League of Legends and Valorant, which are free to download. The players spend a lot of time building characters and levels, Stancil said.

The other two teams are based on Nintendo Switch with Super Smash Ultimate and competitive Pokémon. The teams are need of equipment, incidental coverage, meeting space renovation aid and more.

Stancil said there's a lot that goes into supporting her team, but she took it upon herself to get it going. She hopes to provide all of the students involved with scholarship opportunities.

Currently, eSports is working on having a mural installed in the front space of their meeting room for a lounge area.

"We'd have students who watch steaming scrimmages, competitive play and (it would be) a space for teams to relax," Stancil said.

The group is holding study hours for finals week as a way to support students' academic endeavors as well as the "in-person" side of things, Stancil said.

"We're trying to make that a comfortable space that they can come to be quiet and focused," she said.

Their Super Smash Ultimate team will be competing this weekend in their first ever state-representing game, in official UAFS gear.

Stancil noted that there is a negative stigma around the amount of time students put into playing games, but the coaches have seen immense benefits from it. She is also a professor of video games at the university and her dissertation focused on video games and gamer culture.

She explained that a big part of what the coaches see is that eSports gives students who may not have this type of outlet, or a group of people like them who get together, it gives them an opportunity to work on group communication, interpersonal communication, critical thinking and problem solving.

"We have seen students that have naturally taken leadership positions on these different teams, and the way that they then mentor other students has been really beautiful to see," Stancil said. "Again, it is a place for students who maybe couldn't get a basketball scholarship or don't do golf or track and this is a place that they didn't realize was a home for them."

On the Day of Giving, it feels like "going to the races" for Simonds.

"I'm watching the thermometer fill up, I'm watching (donations) come in," he said. "I've got people texting me like 'oh my gosh, can you believe it, we're a quarter to our goal, we've raised this much' and our community has felt enough love for the institution and for its students (to donate).

Simonds wants to see all of the students supported to the fullest because that's what they deserve.

"All of these students deserve world-class opportunities," he said. "The university does a great job of opening that door, sometimes the students just need help getting through it."

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: UAFS aims to collect $60,000 from day of giving