This year, the ARAD Service Corps included Sabrina Chen, Christine Chuang, Cornelia Clay, Lulu Feng, Richard Mayer, Isabella Rivera, and Monika Xu, who, with support from ARAD staff, Jessie Young and Katarina Wong, spearheaded a bake sale fundraiser. In addition, they organized the December Holiday Service Event, which brought students, staff, and faculty together for an evening of camaraderie as we assembled 45 gift bags for Art Start students and their families.

Through the ARAD Service Corps efforts, we received in-kind donations from Dunkin’ Donuts and Joe Coffee for a bake sale that raised $300, and a generous gift card from Fairway. The proceeds will support two non-profit arts organization: Art Start brings arts programming to at-risk youth. Art Start kids live in city shelters, on the streets, are involved in court cases, or surviving with parents in crisis; and Every Voice Choirs, which is housed here at TC and helps young people ages 7-16 discover their voices and share them with pride.

This was the second year that our Holiday Service Project was led by ARAD students. Through the Service Corps, students have the opportunity to manage a multi-faceted project, apply what they learned academically, and build their professional skills.

As first-year ARAD student Cornelia Clay noted, “By soliciting donations for the holiday service project, I was able to implement a concept from our Support Structures class, namely that it becomes simple to ask for support for a project when you can demonstrate the project’s impact, value, and importance—and even more so when you believe in those things yourself! Asking Fairway for a donation was a good start, because they had donated before. Their participation gave me more confidence to approach Joe Coffee for a donation of in-kinds goods to our bake sale. Expressing not only why the project was worthy of support but also my own enthusiasm for the potential impact of the proposed donations was effective, and we were delighted they decided to participate.”

ARAD extends its gratitude to our Service Corps members and acknowledges the hard work and creativity that made our project another success! For those who attended the event, donated, and/or supported our bake sale, thank you for helping us bring some holiday cheer to those in our community in need.

Check out some of the photos from the ARAD Holiday Service Event below.