| BRYN MAWR APPLICANTS DONATE $22,000 TO NONPROFITS
CLASS OF '09: VITAL STATS
Members of the Class of 2009 come from 45 states (including the District of Columbia) and 28 countries. The most-represented states are California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Approximately 31 percent identify themselves as students of color. Students with dual or foreign citizenship make up 12 percent of the class. |
As Bryn Mawr's incoming Class of 2009 arrives on campus, it has already embraced the College's tradition of making a difference in the world. A program that allowed each applicant to donate $50 to the charity or community organization of her choice in lieu of an application fee raised more than $22,000, reports Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jennifer Rickard.
Bryn Mawr received a record number of applications for the fourth year in a row, and 22 percent of those applicants chose to donate their fees. Among the 358 enrolling applicants, 34 percent chose the donation option. The top recipients of these gifts:
- Doctors Without Borders
- Heifer International
- Habitat International
- The American Cancer Society
- American Red Cross International
- American Red Cross
- The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation
- Locks of Love
Numerous smaller nonprofit organizations also benefited, including many that provided relief to victims of the tsunami that devastated several coastal regions of South East Asia last December.
The application-fee donation program was the brainchild of Associate Director of Admissions Maureen McGonigle '98. Rickard enthusiastically approved the idea as a way to highlight Bryn Mawr's tradition of civic engagement. The College recently earned a third-place ranking among liberal-arts colleges in The Washington Monthly's new college guide, which evaluates how well schools serve the public good.
"The donation program was a remarkably effective way of communicating Bryn Mawr's values," Rickard said, "because it actively involved students in the College's culture of engagement and service. The fee revenue we forfeited could have been spent on a publication telling applicants that Bryn Mawr women make a meaningful contribution to the world. Instead, we encouraged them to do it."
It caught Ruthie Storch's eye. Storch, an incoming first-year student who hails from Phoenix, has invested a good deal of time and effort in community service, especially volunteer work for children with special needs. As a high-school junior, she researched the genetics of autism as an intern at Arizona State University, and she aspires to a career in developmental pediatrics.
"When I saw the donation option on the Bryn Mawr literature, I thought, 'I really have to take a look at this school,'" Storch recalls. "I felt that it said so much about the college — what it stands for and what it values."
Storch made her donation to the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center.
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