Bringing GIVE to MY Campus
Written by: Bri Delano
Before I started college at the University of New Hampshire, I had no idea that GIVE was an organization. In my freshman year, I made friends with girls through another organization I was a part of, and they introduced me to GIVE and told me all the cool things it has to offer. One of the girls had already been to Nicaragua, and another was going to Hawaii.
I was immediately interested, and before I knew it, I had a trip booked to Hawaii for the next year. This GIVE trip was one of the best things I have ever done, and I am so grateful for the experience. It taught me so many things about different cultures and how important it is to take good care of our land.
In my senior year at UNH, I decided to start a GIVE student group. I found a few like-minded, and we got together to plan our first meeting. Our first information meeting was held in September 2024 and had a much larger turnout than any of us were expecting. There were a lot of students who had already gone on trips and were very familiar with GIVE, and others who were super interested in learning more about it.
As we got more comfortable holding meetings and continued to grow our GIVE community on campus, we started to hold social events as a way to bond with our members. We had water bottle plant potting, canvas bag painting, summer bucket lists, and even collaborated with another organization on campus to make dog blankets for the local shelter! Bringing people together in such a positive and fulfilling way has been one of my favorite memories of running the student group.
I would have never imagined that going on my first GIVE trip my freshman year would have led to something like this. Going into our first meeting, I was so nervous that no one was going to be interested in GIVE or think that they’d be able to go on these trips, and I am so glad I was proved wrong. We have been able to open so many eyes to GIVE’s mission and have even helped people start fundraisers so that they can go on trips and experience it for themselves. It just shows how much GIVE brings people together and can lead to positive change.