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PSPA Offers $5K to Fund Best Student Proposal for Campus Activities

What would you do with $5,000? Thanks to a strong year in fundraising, Parents of Students at Phillips Academy (PSPA) is sponsoring and coordinating a contest with the Students Activities Office in which students will decide how they want to spend $5,000. Cindy Efinger, Director of Student Activities, said “PSPA did really well in fundraising this year and had some extra money leftover, so they came to me and I said ‘We should make a contest out of this.’” Ideas can be submitted by one student or a group of students, as long as their proposal has a broad student impact, are completed before the end of the school year, conform to school policies and schedule, and receive the approval of the PSPA and Student Activities office, according to a school-wide email sent by Efinger. Robert Grunbeck, the President of PSPA, said, “We’re going above and beyond what we [PSPA] normally do. The whole idea is for [students] to have some fun with it and come up with ideas about what you want to get done.” Every year, PSPA has about $2,000 in its budget, which it did not spend entirely this year because many of the large-scale projects, such as the renovations in GW and the transition into Uncommons, were already “taken care of,” according to Grunbeck, with Abbot grants and budgeting by the school. In the past, the PSPA has been responsible for funding many club grants, class activities, and special campus-wide events. On top of that, some clubs on campus that received funding from PSPA had money left over from last year which they had not used, so PSPA received a total of $2300 back to PSPA this year from the school. “We’ve also been very successful in selling merchandise and fundraising, and we had some extra money coming in from there,” he said. “Our purpose is to serve the students, so the Board itself met back in January and this [contest] was one of the ideas,” said Grunbeck. He added, “I’ve been working with Cindy [Efinger] all along, as well as Marlys [Edwards], and didn’t get a official approval until last night.” When asked how he hoped the money would be spent, Grunbeck said, “We don’t want to put out any preconceived ideas, because the idea is to let you guys be creative.” “Whether it should be an event, like a barbeque, or purchasing something that can be used for a long period of time, or doing something with the new Ryley Room, it’s really whatever [the students] decide,” said Grunbeck. Efinger also did not want to narrow the options. “I think that it’s really open; we can do it as a one-time activity, or a pool table or do something that’s permanent. It’s totally up to what the kids are looking for,” she said. “I’m definitely excited to hear other people’s ideas,” said Conrad Bastable ’09. “I think that it has potential,” said Ziwe Fumudoh ’10. “It has to be an idea that the whole student body will want,” added Tina Kit ’09. Foster Jebsen ’08, said “Honestly, [we should have] a concert, because that would be pretty cool.” Several other students also proposed the idea of a concert on campus. Sophia Bernazzani ’10 said, “For $5,000, we could get a local Boston gig.” “We should bring a big artist here. Someone that a lot of people would want to see,” said Chanel O’Brien ’10. Peter Ly ’09 proposed, “A weekend with new events like a paintballing trip would be worth it.” On the other hand, a few students felt that the money should be put to different use. Chelsea Quezergue ’10 said, “Andover doesn’t need any more money. Why can’t they just donate the money? I would use it to fundraise for an orphanage in Africa.” Many students suggested using the money towards renovating Underwood or dorms. “A DDR-version arcade would benefit Underwood,” said Nick Dean ’10. Ramya Prathuri ’10 agreed. “We do something in Underwood because no one goes there, and I don’t blame them,” she said. Other ideas include “golf-carts for students,” said Mide Babatunde ’09, “a jukebox for Ryley Room,” said Bernazzani, “to have more DVDs in the library,” said Morgan Trigg ’10, and “getting vending machines in Graves.” said Jenny Zhou ’11. All proposals are due by April 5 to the Student Activites Office. At the beginning of Spring Term, students will vote online to choose the winning idea.