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| McColl School of Business |
This connection began when the McColl School of Business sent out requests for local nonprofits to work with small groups of graduate students over the summer. According to the Executive MBA Director, Nancy McNelis, “We received 13 applications and selected 5 based upon project, diversity of organization and community need. Then all 5 nonprofits presented to EMBA students and they ranked their selection. All students were assigned to their first or second choice.”
When it was time to give the presentation, our Director Kristina Cruise stepped up for the responsibility. Even for such a multi-talented, outgoing woman, deciding to take on this job really showed her dedication to Promising Pages. I am not only referring to her giving a fantastic presentation, but she took her 12 day old son in with her! And her presentation encouraged four students to choose to collaborate with our summer project. Kristina explained the specific details of the project, saying, “They will be partnering to launch our 1 million books campaign. They will be assisting us for the branding and marketing campaign. We will work with the students and staff this summer and we likely roll out the OMB (One Million Books) officially in August. We will ask all businesses, schools and churches and civic groups to participate and collect books for us during a two or three week period between August and the following August.”
A large inspiration for Kristina to apply to the MBA partnership came from some encouraging words from Charlotte Chamber member Stoney Sellars. Kristina tells me, “The OMB campaign started as the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), then Stoney Sellars told me in a meeting on Oct 31st, 2011 that ‘We can do this. This is a supportive community and if you don't see this as a real goal instead of an audacious goal you are missing the point.’”
Kristina took a leap of faith and pursued this goal. In return, Promising Pages now has four dedicated graduate students to help market our journey in collecting 1 million books. Karen, who voted to join the Promising Pages team, has a long history of reading. She loved Dr. Seuss as a child and she tells me now, “I read mostly nonfiction and biographies of people of interest. I also read a lot of articles.” She is a Charlotte native and is a strong supporter of Promising Pages. She says her reason for choosing Promising Pages out of the other nonprofit options was because, “I strongly believe reading is important, and my family reads a lot.” When I asked her what she hoped to accomplish with the summer project, she eagerly replied, “I hope to help contribute to the public's awareness of the program. I feel it is so important to get books in the hands of those who cannot afford them or do not have access to them. Knowledge is so important and one can learn different ways of thinking, behaviors, philosophies, can relate to others, etc. just by reading.” I speak for Promising Pages when I say my hope is that by the time they're done, everyone in Charlotte will know about the likes of Promising Pages, at least that's the goal anyway, a big hairy audacious goal, transformed into reality.
I want to thank all of my viewers for reading my blog. I will be graduating from the School of Arts at Queens in less than two weeks, and this is my last blog. But, don’t worry, our new blogger, Michelle Tabler, will be continuing to write for Promising Pages. If you want to know more information about Promising Pages, visit us at www.promisingpages.com. Again, thank you for reading!
--Faith Lippard, Promising Pages Blogger
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