I can’t believe it’s been a year already since I had blogged about Tuck GIVES (Grants to Interns and Volunteers for the Environment and Society) – seemed like it was eons ago, when I was a first year MBA student, back when I was ensconced in the comfort that I had one more year to go at Tuck.
To refresh the memory of this blog’s readers, Tuck GIVES is a program, rather, an auction that is held every year. The auctioneers are Tuckies; the auctioned items are all donated by members of the Tuck community including alumni; and the bidders are either individuals or syndicates of Tuck students who come together to bid on items with enthusiasm.
Proceeds from the auction are used to fund internships for Tuckies who work for non-profit organizations which typically cannot afford to have an MBA intern for one full summer. A number of T’10s were able to take advantage of this program last year, and had successful internships.
This year’s Tuck GIVES auction took place this past Thursday and the entire community came together to donate some innovative items for the auction. For example, the MBAPO came up with the idea of auctioning a sought-after parking slot for the entire year (so that the winner doesn’t have to walk much more than a few steps to get to class, especially during winter). A prescient T’11 won this precious slot by bidding $900 (or maybe $1000 in case I missed an additional bid).
Some of the auctioned items included dinners by Tuck faculty. Perennial favorites – a Cajun style dinner by Dean Danos, a joint Texas barbeque by Professors Sansing and Bell, and a South African dinner by Prof. Stocken – drew the big bucks. For instance, an eight-member syndicate signed up for Prof. Stocken’s dinner at a price of $2,800! Some of the other attractions included tickets to Red Sox games, a vacation package at a luxury resort in Bermuda, a package to a ski resort in Colorado, and a day-long workout session with Tuckies from the Armed Forces. Students from Mexico came together to offer a full-fledged Mexican dinner as did the Brazilian students with a Brazilian barbecue extravaganza.
It’s amazing how the tradition continues year after year. I was impressed to know that over the years, Tuckies have contributed upwards of $500K through Tuck GIVES, and in so doing, have enabled the internships – and by extension, the careers – of a number of their peers. Truly extraordinary!
Read the full article: Tuck GIVES – 2nd edition