When Carla Cardamone ’19 first began soliciting alumni for gifts as a student caller, she says she hated it—until she was able to convince an initially reluctant alumnus to give.
“His whole viewpoint completely changed, and it made me realize if we had conversations like this with everyone, just imagine where the College would be,” says the sociology major and financial aid recipient. That epiphany, and four years of Telefund experience, helped drive the most successful senior class gift campaign in seven years. Carla and her committee of volunteers raised almost $4,500 for current-year scholarships from 235 seniors, or 51 percent of the graduating class—a higher percentage than any of this year’s reunion classes.
“We are really happy how it turned out,” says committee member and biology major Eva Jahanshir ’19 (pictured above), also a veteran Telefund caller. “Oxy students love Oxy because it’s such a great school. All of us know that college is getting more expensive, and anything we can do to help another person benefit from the experience we had is a worthwhile thing. Even if people give $5, together we can still raise a lot of money.” An emphasis on personal, one-on-one outreach made a difference, adds Eva, who is credited with bringing in 34 individual gifts. “We wanted to have a real impact,” says Carla. “All we wanted to do is give more people a chance to come to Oxy.”