India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The country has undergone rapid progress ever since the government opened up its borders for foreign investments in 1991. Sounds familiar? This is exactly what you will hear in any article or news channel. But what people don’t tell you is at what expense this growth happens.
Every development project has displaced communities and has had a lot of negative social and economic impacts on the communities. For example, dam construction projects alone have displaced 21 to 33 million people in India. We met with one such displaced community in Bangalore. The land on which these people were living legally belonged to the “Economically Weaker Sections” of the society. However due to government’s favoritism towards big businesses, corporations were allowed to demolish the homes of the poor for commercial purposes. We learned about this community through a Facebook group and decided to help.
On visiting the site, we found that a lot of displaced people were elderly citizens, women and children. These people were living with bare minimum resources. We did a clothing run and distributed the clothes to as many people as we could. We also provided monetary support to some of the elderly people.
Most of these people are from the economically backward and are desperate for help. In such conditions, it is human nature to take as much help as you can even if it is at the expense of being too greedy due to which some members end up not getting any benefit. Therefore, one of the most important things we had to ensure is that there is equitable distribution of resources. Although donating clothes/money will help in the short run, we felt it quintessential to spread awareness of such exploitations within our circle of influence (i.e. family, friends, and colleagues) so that governments at the expense of growth will not compromise on basic rights of the citizens, especially the lower class since they have very little influence on policy making.

Shridhar Vijay Kumar, Rahul Panicker
Smeal Class of 2013

Last month I had chance to join a canning trip in Harrisburg with my classmates Greg, Lynn and Anthony. As you may know, this is one of the fundraising activities for THON at Penn State, where all the money raised will go to the Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital to support pediatric cancer patients. I’ve always wanted to participate in such a meaningful event but my school schedule is really tight. Therefore I was very excited to be able to join the last trip of this year (there are only three designated weekends for this event each year).

We left early in the morning and arrived at Harrisburg by 10 am. Our destination was Wal-Mart, because with experience from previous trips, Greg told us that staying there is better and safer than being around a street corner. We were lucky that it was a beautiful sunny Friday, despite the whole week of rainy weather. The four of us divided into two teams, each stood in front of one of the entrances with a can and a poster sign, greeting people passing by. It was amazing to see how many people knew about THON and supported us. Some of them were Penn State alumni or current students, or families of Penn State students who were canning in other places. Some have children being treated at the Hershey Medical Center. There were also many other people who wanted to help by donating to our fund. We had some interesting conversations and received a lot of encouraging words for what we were doing. I was really happy about it.

Time went by so fast. At noon, we took a break and had a good time at lunch at Little Joe’s Pizza. Then we came back to Wal-Mart and stayed for three more hours, before heading back to State College. Carrying the heavy cans to the car, we were all eager to see how much money we had raised that day. Anthony and I sat in the back seat counting our result. Holding the money, thinking about each note as an effort to fight against cancer and that everything in the cans would be used to help the unfortunate kids, I felt very proud of THON, of Penn State and of my fellow MBAs. We arrived at the total of about $600 – not as much as last time. However, with a group of only four people, I think it was a success. Thanks Greg and Lynn, member of the THON Committee for giving me an opportunity to be part of this great philanthropic activity.

Janice Nguyen
MBA Class of 2013

And that was the remark that stuck in my head during the THON brainstorming meeting, a part of the Smeal Philanthropy initiative to reach out to the community. This was the kick-off meeting to bring out ideas for raising funds for the THON 2011 and the target this year was $8000, a significant increase from the last year’s $2000. Several passionate people, a few second years and huge number of first year students, and of course hardcode Penn Staters, were present at the meeting.

There were so many interesting things we learnt at the meeting like ‘canning’, FTK – for the kids, THON etc. The THON is the largest student run fundraiser in the world which raised $7.8M entirely dedicated to fight pediatric cancer and provide family assistance, through the Four Diamonds fund. Each year hundreds of volunteers participate in this dance maraTHON, a 46 hour non-stop event, where the dancers must not  sit or sleep, but interact with the kids, families and of course… dance! This is the way show their dedication to the cause and the people who pledged donations to have the dancers represent people’s contributions who could not be physically present at the event. Just to give you a sense of the exclusivity of this event, there are only 700 ‘available positions‘ for dancers and they are then chosen through a selection process.

In the brainstorming meeting, there were around 10 first year students present but the range of ideas that came out of the meeting were absolutely sparkling, some of which were – ‘battle of the bands’ – a music contest between the first year and second year bands, jewelry making & sale, Care for your kids – a way to have parents pledge money for the THON in return for services for their kids during exams, bake sales during the MBA coffee buzz, ‘THON the buzz’ – create awareness about the THON by getting moralers to the MBA commons, pick-up volleyball, basketball games to raise funds, pledge books, faculty-student tugs-of-war and so on. So the Service@Smeal seems to have started off of a high note and I’m sure that the core team continues this pace for things to come as the ideas come to fruition! Just a prelude to the glorious THON, 46 hrs of no sitting, no sleeping…. no kidding!

-Moulik Desai
MBA Class of 2012

Thank you for showing incredible support, compassion, and kindness as Lena and I danced for 46 hours to help fight cancer in THON 2010 this weekend.  You proved over and over again that we weren’t the only Smeal MBAs standing up against cancer–while we stood on the dance floor below, you stood in three-hour lines above so you could stand beside us for just a few minutes.  You crowded the pit section of the stands to show us that we were never alone.  You brought us snacks, toys, and games at all hours of the day and night to make sure we always had something new to do.  You made sure that whenever and wherever we looked up, we saw those familiar yellow shirts that shouted, “You aren’t alone!  We’re here too!”  In the long hours of the early morning on Saturday and Sunday, when we were at our weakest and our strength began to fail, you were there to support us.  When our legs and feet hurt too much to stand, you were there to lift us up and carry us.  When we stumbled, you were there to catch us.  You danced the Line Dance with us, you cheered with us, and you cried with us during the finale when we celebrated the lives of our children that lost their battle with cancer.  You were a constant reminder that there weren’t just two MBAs on the dance floor–there were two hundred. I can’t tell you how wonderful it was to receive the constant stream of letters, text messages, emails, Facebook posts, surprise visits, toys, games (yes, even seventeen crossword puzzle books!), and care packages from you.  Every time we thought we were well and truly alone, and that we would have to soldier through the next hour without any support–every time our spirits began to droop and our endurance began to flag–we’d catch sight of one of you hanging over the balcony cheering at the top of your lungs and windmilling your arms around like crazy.  And it was fantastic!  From the moment the lights came on at the beginning of THON to the moment we finally sat down at the end, you were a constant source of courage, honesty, wisdom, and strength.  You didn’t just make a difference; you made the difference.  And together, we prevailed.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! Make no mistake:  this is something that we all–each and every one of us–did together as a community.  And we all should be fantastically proud of our achievement.  We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again:  you remind us each and every day of the reasons we chose to come to Penn State.  You remind us why our MBA community stands head and shoulders above the others.  You remind us why it stands apart, why it’s great, and why it’s the only MBA program we could possibly call home:  you proved that above all else, Love Belongs Here.  Thank you!  We are proud to be part of this program.

As a final bonus, check out this YouTube video that shows the year’s overall THON fundraising total being revealed:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_G1s7aUL6g.  I’m sure you know by now that we raised a staggering 7.8 million dollars to fight pediatric cancer, but that’s not why I’m mentioning this video.  Pause it at the 48-second mark, and look closely.  See those four kids at the front of the stage, holding the signs and wearing familiar yellow shirts?  Yep, that’s right–those are our kids, our THON family, standing front and center on the stage and grinning from ear-to-ear as they reveal the final tally.  We should be immensely proud of each other–not only did we stand together to fight cancer, but we made a wonderful difference in the lives of a few children.  We leave a lasting positive impression wherever we go, and that’s one more reason that we are proud to call this program our home.  Well done!

For the Kids (and see you next year at THON 2011!),

Ron and Lena