PwC Scholars fundraising and social events recap: Spring 2018

The PwC Scholars program rounded out the 2017–18 school year with another successful semester of fundraising and social events. Here are a few highlights:

Fundraising

The PwC Scholars set an ambitious fundraising goal of $15,000 to help support its annual large-scale community service project at the Helping Celebrate Abilities (HCA) preschool in Johnson City, N.Y. The group held a number of events in the spring that not only allowed it to reach the goal, but exceed it.

The first event of the spring semester was the eighth annual “Date” Auction, in which students bid on unique networking events with professionals. Over 25 professionals offered “dates” — such as a round of miniature golf, tickets to a New York Yankees game and a day on Wall Street. The group raised over $4,000 in revenue, breaking a record for the event.

In March, the Scholars partnered with Visions Federal Credit Union to run the MarketWatch stock-trading competition. The competition had around 60 students compete against nearly a dozen alumni, faculty and professionals to see who could generate the largest returns from investing a virtual portfolio worth $100,000 in the stock market over a three-week period. The top three spots were awarded to students.

The group finished the year by partnering with the residential community government of College-in-the-Woods to be the recipient of the funds raised from the annual “Casino-in-the-Woods” event. Students exchanged money for casino chips and used them to play games such as blackjack and roulette. The $3,600 won by the “house” was donated to the community service project at HCA.

In addition to money raised in the fall, the group finished the year with $19,220 for the community service project.

Social events

The PwC Scholars also took part in a number of fun social events throughout the semester.

This year’s high snow totals may not have been fun for everyone else, but it was great for the 35 scholars who attended the annual skiing social at Greek Peak Mountain Resort in Cortland, N.Y! Many of them learned how to ski or snowboard on the trip.

Just before spring break, sophomores in the program traveled to New York City for the annual visit to PwC. There, finalists in the sophomore case competition competed against each other for a grand prize of $500. Other highlights included breakout sessions, panels, networking opportunities, dinner and a Broadway show.

A roller-skating/laser tag event drew record attendance, as did a joint social event with the Binghamton University Scholars Program. Two social events with prospective scholars were also held, and over 30 scholars went to see Tim Tebow play baseball at a Binghamton Rumble Ponies game in mid-April.

The end-of-the-year banquet was held on April 19, the day before the big community service day at HCA. Graduating seniors also went to Boston to celebrate the end of the school year. The trip included lunch in the Seaport District, a tour of Harpoon Brewery and a visit to both Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market.

The PwC Scholar student/alumni summer mixer will be taking place on June 20 in NYC. Learn more and register here.