Toronto, ON - February 22, 2011 - Two Humber College postgraduate students in the Fundraising and Volunteer Management (FVM) program won $10,000 for an AIDS charity in Africa, plus a trip to Spain for themselves, in a contest run by Ford Focus.
Malinda Denbok, 26, and Samantha Banks, 22, both from Toronto, posted a video in support of Living Positive Program (LPP), a charity in Kenya that runs a school program for children and women affected by HIV. The video was voted on by visitors and they were selected the winning entries. The prize package includes $10,000 for the charity, through GlobalGiving.org, plus another $3,000 that Denbok and Banks will use in Canada to raise awareness about LPP.
“LPP is an amazing charity that does so much good work and we are excited to see the effect that the $10,000 grant will have,” said Denbok. “On top of that, we look forward to further promoting the Living Positive Program through this competition and practically using what we are currently learning in school at Humber."
The Humber FVM program is an intensive year-long graduate certificate that prepares students to run special events, create mass-market campaigns, write grant proposals, approach major donors, use new media, and much more. Many of their assignments require working closely with non-profit groups, charities, and those who help the sector. In addition the students complete a ten-week full-time, on-the-job internship.
"Samantha and Malinda showed amazing initiative, and they are already putting their education to good use," said Humber professor Ken Wyman.
Winning the award happened because Denbok’s Twitter account was noticed by Ford’s marketing team.
“They contacted me because they could tell it was something I would be interested in, and Sam and I got to work right away,” said Denbok, a University of Western Ontario graduate who has raised funds for many charities, and has served in underprivileged communities. “When this opportunity came our way we were incredibly excited to get what is hopefully the first grant of our fundraising careers.”
Banks, a Concordia University graduate, has also been involved in advocacy and charity work for years. This includes serving on the board of directors for United Israel Appeal and Hillel Canada, attending conferences throughout the world that focused on interfaith and peace in the Middle East, and raising funds for cancer relief and juvenile diabetes.
"I am honoured to have worked with unbelievable people and will continue to change lives until the day people stop changing mine,” she said.
As part of their prize, they flew to Madrid, where they will spend Reading Week meeting other contest winners from 13 countries. They also get the use of a 2012 Ford Focus for six weeks.
About Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning
Established in 1967, Humber is one of Canada’s leading postsecondary institutions. Committed to student success through excellence in teaching and learning, Humber serves more than 22,000 full-time students and 56,000 continuing education registrants. With an internationally recognized reputation for quality learning, Humber offers a wide-range of career-focused opportunities for students to personalize their educational path. Our 150 full-time programs include four-year bachelor’s degrees, two and three-year diplomas, one and two-year certificates, and apprenticeship training.~ As a founding member of Polytechnics Canada, Humber offers students the opportunity to participate in applied research projects that find solutions for issues confronting small and medium-sized enterprises. Humber is one of 12 Vanguard Learning Colleges as identified by the League for Innovation, and the League’s only Canadian board member. Humber finished first in its class in the highly regarded Community College Survey of Student Engagement in 2009 in each of four categories, including Active and Collaborative Learning, Student Effort, Academic Challenge and Student-Faculty Interaction. More than 85 per cent of Humber graduates are employed within six months of completing their studies.
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For more information, please contact:
Malinda Denbok
dnbm0030@humbermail.ca
905 550-5800
Samantha Banks
Sambanks@klayman.com
416.787.2318
Professor Ken Wyman CFRE
Coordinator, Postgraduate Fundraising & Volunteer Manage ment Program
Humber College
ken.wyman@humber.ca
416.675.6622 x 3013
