Five Commerce students plan to launch a March Madness raffle as a philanthropic and academic venture on Mar. 22. The effort is a class project for Asst. Commerce Prof. Jason Williamson’s Project Management course. The assignment requires students to create a sustainable project using seed money from the course.
Although currently in operation in a “soft launch” stage, the event officially begins Mar. 22, and will continue through the end of the month.
The raffle will be hosted online by fourth-year Commerce students Chris Smalley, Hakeem Allen and Kylie Philbin, as well as third-year Commerce students Mike Keshin and Hunter Demetriou. It will offer multiple $3-5 tickets for a variety of prizes, mostly autographed sports memorabilia. Other prizes include a round of golf with Dean of Students Allen Groves, an opportunity to join University President Teresa Sullivan in her presidential suite at Scott Stadium next semester and a free lunch with Economics Prof. Kenneth Elzinga.
The University’s football, soccer, basketball, baseball and lacrosse teams contributed to the event. Jim Daves, the University assistant athletic director for media relations, said the all the athletic teams are very committed to the betterment of the community.
| “The Virginia athletics department has a long history of supporting community activities and events by donating items from various athletics programs,” Daves said in an email. “We are happy to support many fundraising efforts and benefit programs that enhance our overall community.” All proceeds from the raffle will be donated to The Haven, a Charlottesville day shelter for the homeless. The goal of each student group is to maintain a sustainable project through which they are able to repay the $500 class money and allocate the rest to a charity of their choosing. Williamson said these projects are formatted as an exercise in practical academics, and are a mechanism through which one can experience project management. |
“There is a difference between reading of a book and how you execute a real project,” Williamson said. “The theme of class is to manage the tension between the ideal and the real. That’s project management.”
Williamson said this system is unique to his course, from which 24 total projects are scheduled to be run this semester.
“I know of other courses that do social enterprise,” Williamson said. “But I don’t know of anyone that says here’s money, go help people.”
Allen said he agreed with Williamson’s description of the dual academic functions the project serves and that the impetus behind the project as philanthropic
“On the academic side, we’re learning project management process and applying that to the real world. It’s about the project management process,” Allen said. “The main point is raising money for charity.”
Allen said the pecuniary goal for the raffle is to make $2,000 and he said the inspiration for the project came from a multitude of successful sports seasons this year, particularly the basketball team. In order to achieve this goal, Allen said the group plans to launch an internal marketing campaign through email blasts, flyers and Facebook marketing targeted to University alumni, who, along with the University community, were their main targets for donations.
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