McNicholas students are taught to be giving students and many are part of the largest student organization at the school: Service Club. Through this club and outside resources, students log hundreds of service hours during the year. Just one of the many ways the students of McNick give back to the local community is through the Student Philanthropy Club. Originally a part of Service Club, it is now its own club open to juniors and seniors involved in Service Club.
The Student Philanthropy Club, moderated by theology teacher David Sandmann, is comprised of twenty students who meet once a week before school. The purpose of the club is to spend the year researching and raising money to donate to a specific charity. The Student Philanthropy club is a part of the Greater Cincinnati Magnified Giving organization, which provides $1000 to local high school student philanthropy groups to donate to charities.
This year Student Philanthropy chose ProKids because they wanted to focus on a charity that helped women and children who are victims of abuse. ProKids is an organization that advocates for children in the Hamilton County child protection system and tries to find them safe, permanent homes. Besides the $1000 from Magnified Giving, the club raised an additional $500.
On Monday, May 9, theology teacher Sam Roflow and eight students attended the Magnified Giving award ceremony to present ProKids the money raised. McNick is just one out of 64 high schools in the Greater Cincinnati area involved in Magnified Giving and only one out of 17 schools at the awards ceremony.
At the ceremony, the students listened to founder Roger Greiner, who visited McNick earlier this year, share his experience in philanthropy and his goal to teach young people how to give back. The schools presented their checks to their charities and talked about why they chose them. Jacob Counts, a Paralympic basketball player who started a charity in Cincinnati, was the evening’s special guest speaker. Counts talked about his story and charity and told the students what the donations mean to his charity. He closed his speech with a quote, “I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me,” saying if students want to see a change in the world they need to be the change.
The McNicholas Milestone 