My Experience with Dinner at Davidson

First of all, this post should be sort of considered a follow-up to an article I wrote for the Davidsonian last week, which you ought to read here.

If you're too lazy to read it or just don't have time, essentially I talked about the affordability of higher education in the United States and how higher education is getting more and more unreachable every year for more and more Americans.

I realize that while my article didn't have a necessarily bleak outlook, I didn't really provide too many solutions to the woes of American higher education, specifically when it comes to affordability.

This is where the Davidson Trust, Student Trust Awareness Committee, and Dinner at Davidson come in.



While the Davidson Trust, STAC, and D@D are completely unable to fix US affordability on a grand scale, all three are offering a truly inspiring model for other colleges and universities to learn from. The Davidson Trust covers all demonstrated need of every Davidson student. This allows Davidson to accept everyone based on merit rather than whether or not they appear to be a good investment to invite to attend the college (and the rate of alumni donorship shows how appreciative many Davidson students are of the incredible education they have been afforded).

The Davidson Trust mixes grants (not loans - so students don't owe the college anything) and student employment to cover 100% of the monetary need of students. This means the classrooms are full of the smartest, hardest workers possible, rather than ones full of only those whose parents are able to afford a fine liberal arts education. Almost 50% of students on campus receive financial aid from the Davidson Trust in some form today. Personally, I have been affected greatly by the Davidson Trust, since some of the most valuable friends I have made on campus are people who wouldn't have been able to attend this school otherwise. I am so thankful to be in a place that values merit like Davidson, and classroom discussions and a competitive atmosphere both serve to promote me to work my very hardest at all times.

STAC is a student-run group on campus that is considered a part of the Student Government Association, though it operates independently from the SGA. This year, I was fortunate enough to get to work with this group for a semester and a half. The group of students in this committee are some of the most incredible people I have ever worked with. The passion they have for Davidson and the Trust is something to be admired greatly, and they have inspired me in many, many ways.

STAC is in charge of raising student and national awareness to the Davidson Trust and how transformative it is on campus. This group has also been responsible for planning Dinner at Davidson, which this year saw it's fourth annual iteration. Dinner at Davidson aims to raise money for the Davidson Trust through an online auction before the event, a dinner for which tickets are sold for donations, and donations through a production written by Rodney Saunders, Jr., a Davidson senior.

Dinner at Davidson has raised $2500, $22000, and $50000 in past years. This year, between items bought through the digital auction, revenues from ticket sales to the event, and donations during the evening, we were able to raise $35000. This year has been a year of unprecedented public awareness for the Trust, and we felt we had reached a very noble goal.

However, a couple days later, the chairs of STAC, Heidi Gruber and Laura Arnold, were informed that an anonymous group of donors would like to highlight the hard work the committee put towards the Trust that has become so essential to what is definitively Davidson. This group of donors did so by matching the amount of money our committee raised through the evening's events, bringing the total money raised for the Davidson Trust to over $70,000!

SEVENTY. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

This is an incredible feat. We are all so gracious and so thrilled to have gone far and beyond what we could have ever imagined to have raised in a year. In terms of scholarships, this means we will be paying for two students to attend Davidson this next year. When I think about my friends and who I would lose had they not received funding from the Trust, this number is incredibly significant.

I am still so excited to have played at least a small role in this committee of dedicated Davidson students who have demonstrated to the Davidson community and the nation as a whole (through more than 24 different news outlets across several states) exactly what makes Davidson students so special - they really care about education and what can really make a difference in the community they live in.

If you were to ask me today what the biggest thing I've been a part of in my life, I would probably answer this semester and a half working with STAC, even if my role was minor. I wouldn't trade the time for anything, and I am so excited looking towards the future with this incredible group of students.


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If you're interested in finding out more information about Dinner at Davidson or possibly donating to the cause, click here. I'm also happy to explain how the Trust is critical to Davidson's success as a small, rigorous liberal arts college and the creed of Davidson scholarship.