Through the generosity of Howard ’76 ’77 and Cherine Janzen and Jerry ’72 ’75 and Karen Zink, Mines Philanthropy Council was established during the fall of 2015. The vision of this student-led club is two-fold.

First, the group strives to get students involved in philanthropic initiatives on the Mines campus. They promote a Mines-centered culture of philanthropy, while serving as student advocates for the foundation. There are currently ten students serving as officers and a handful more as club members.

Secondly, the organization wants to increase education on campus concerning what philanthropy is and what it looks like. The council started a series of speakers to talk about what philanthropy means in their lives.

 

Their main event last fall was Mines Philanthro-Tank, where students across campus applied for funding, and the semi-finalists did a Shark Tank-style pitch on how they would apply funds to their project. Out of 22 applications, five teams received an award to make their project a reality using funding from the generous donors. These pitches were incredibly varied in scope, from initiatives to educate the campus in first aid to creating a study space for parents with young children.