Amanda Morris
Assistant News Editor
The Class of 2013 is giving back to Wheaton through a gift of funds to Building Roads to Intellectual Diversity and Great Education (B.R.I.D.G.E.), an intensive four-week residential academic enrichment and leadership program.
Bringing together first-generation, low-income African American or Latino students from Chicago, this free two-year summer program prepares Christian high school students for college through a curriculum that caters to their intellectual, leadership and spiritual growth.
According to an email sent to the senior class, the senior class gift will go toward the B.R.I.D.G.E. Student Scholarship, giving B.R.I.D.G.E. students an opportunity to get a Wheaton education by making it more financially accessible to them.
This year’s senior class gift committee — consisting of Advancement Associates, the senior class officers and the senior banquet coordinator — chose the gift by considering the college’s strategic priorities and the senior class’ concerns.
Senior class president Chelsea O’Donnell said, “(The Advancement Department) provides us with gifts that it believes … (are) relevant to the college’s strategic priorities and have a relevancy to the identity of the senior class.”
Senior class vice president Sean Ellsworth said that choosing the gift was based on bringing more diverse students to Wheaton.
“It was more about bringing an underprivileged student from the Chicagoland area to Wheaton to give them the Wheaton College education,” Ellsworth said. “Our senior class saw what an incredible opportunity this was, and following the tradition of the past couple senior class gifts of bringing international students to Wheaton, this gift fell in line with the strategic priorities of deepening ethnic diversity on campus.”
Although the senior class members are involved in a variety of extracurricular activities and have different interests, there is one thing they share.
“One thing we do all have in common is this gift of a Wheaton education, and so, by giving it to someone in the Chicagoland area where we have spent four years, it’s right along the lines of that purpose statement,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell shared that one highlight of the selection process was the unanimity among the committee members in choosing the gift.
“To see everybody excited about this and united about the purpose of it and the good of it really brought home that this is something that our class will be passionate about and will value,” O’Donnell said.
Danny Aguilar, EVP for Community Diversity, sent out a petition meant to garner more support for the B.R.I.D.G.E. scholarship the Tuesday after the decision had been confirmed, but it also caused some confusion for senior students.
O’Donnell attributed the confusion to poor timing.
“We’re totally behind B.R.I.D.G.E.; it was just a confusion of timing and procedure,” O’Donnell said. “The important thing is that the decision had been made. It wasn’t affected by the petition; it was just (sent) on poor timing.”
The tradition of the senior class gift began in 1876. Other classes have planted trees on Blanchard lawn, supported scholarships and enriched the Wheaton Fund.
Fundraising for this year’s senior class gift will begin in April at the Senior Banquet and continue until graduation in May.
Ellsworth said, “The advancement office has done an incredible job of presenting all these amazing options … to give back to our Alma Mater … (and) also, just the way that the senior class gift committee has really jumped on board in supporting B.R.I.D.G.E. scholarship. We’re really excited to start pushing it and garnering support from the senior class.”
Correction: The print version of this article reported that the senior class sent out a petition to garner support for the B.R.I.D.G.E. scholarship. However, Danny Aguilar, EVP for Community Diversity, sent out the petition. The Record regrets the error.