2024 Giving Day Recap
UCI Giving Day is an annual event where the anteater community comes together to support the programs we hold nearest and dearest to our hearts. We are incredibly grateful for the strong showing by the CHC community at the 2024 Giving Day on April 16, raising nearly $7,000 for the CHC. Our former Associate Dean, Ted Wright, also issued the community a challenge – 50 individual gifts, which was exceeded with 68 gifts in all, unlocking an additional $50,000 gift.
Winning recognition and esteem as the classes with the greatest number of alumni participating in Giving Day, are (drumroll) the classes of the classes of 1992-97 (smaller class sizes, so we included additional years) AND the classes of 2014-15! The runner ups were the classes of 1998-99. Congratulations to everyone!
By now, we’re sure you know the stats, but what do they mean in practice?
$250: Enables the hosting of a social event like Coffee Hour.
This traditional CHC event, harnessing the uniting force of coffee and carbohydrates, continues to provide valuable networking opportunities to CHC students. In the 2023-2024 school year, CHC held 27 Coffee Hours including Alumni Coffee Hours, Faculty Coffee Hours, and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) Coffee Hours. Alumni connected students to internships, faculty found researchers for their labs, and UROP inspired students to think bigger for their honors research. Other events from the school year supported at this gift level include the quarterly NAR Creative Journal issue unveiling, a professional development fair put on by the CHC peer mentors, a research/thesis information session put on by the CHC graduate scholars, and Fireside Chats featuring honors faculty, to name just a few.
$500: Sends a student to a professional development conference or corporate program.
This year CHC supported 6 students in attending conferences such as the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) and the Western Regional Honors Council Conference (WRHC). At WRHC in Long Beach, CHC students donned UCI lapel pins, presented their research, and networked with other honors students from across the western United States. The exposure to such a wide variety of research topics and modalities was invaluable for the students who were just getting started in the research process, and presenting research gave our graduating senior students a leg up on the next phase of their educational journeys.
$1,000: Supports major Campuswide Honors community events.
Over the years the events may change shape, but the end result is the same. Through cornerstone events like Battle of the Brains, Fall Festival, CHC Showcase (Variety Show, anyone?), and Senior Banquet, more than 340 CHC students engaged with the honors community and made lifelong memories. From the beginning of the year breaking the ice with students through karaoke and crafts, to the end of the year celebrating our seniors with honors cords and awards, CHC’s major community events signal to our students that we care about and support them, and that their connections with each other are as important as their academic successes.
We are so grateful to everyone in our community who participated in this year’s UCI Giving Day. If you missed it and would like to give to the CHC, you may do so anytime at https://honors.uci.edu/ways-to-give/. Every gift matters to today’s honors students. Thank you for your support!