From 20th May to 8th June, we reached out to DCU alumni to reconnect and raise funds for the University’s Access Scholarship Programme. Over three weeks, our team of 27 student callers spoke to an impressive 523 DCU graduates who kindly pledged over €79,000 to support Access scholarships in the coming years.
This support comes at a critical time with demand for Access scholarships increasing significantly in recent years. Access student numbers at DCU have grown from 424 in 2012 to 1,258 this year. DCU alumni have shown great enthusiasm for the programme during recent telethon campaigns and have, once again, played an important role in helping DCU Educational Trust to meet this substantial increase in need.
While financially, the campaign was a very successful one, Jim Canavan, interim CEO with DCU Educational Trust stressed how the telethon is about much more than just raising funds:
“We are delighted to say that, financially this year’s telethon has been a great success and the money raised will go towards funding much-needed scholarships for our Access students. That being said, the telethon is about so much more than raising funds. It is about harnessing relationships with our alumni too. This year, our student callers spoke to an impressive amount of graduates, allowing each and every one of them the opportunity to reconnect with DCU.”
Casey McHugh, one of our student telethon callers, who is supported by the Access Programme commented:
“The DCU telethon means so much to me because without the DCU Access Programme I would not be in college today. Sometimes I don’t think enough people are aware of the amazing support provided by Access to help students with their 3rd level education.
“Being a student caller in this year’s telethon was an extremely fulfilling experience. It gave me an opportunity to speak directly with alumni and inform them of the wonderful work carried out by the DCU Access team. It also gave me the opportunity to share my own story with graduates and I was glad to tell them how Access has single-handedly changed my life.
“I am so grateful, not only to the team in the DCU Access Services for what they’ve done for me, but also to the wonderful DCU alumni who demonstrated such generosity throughout the telethon. I look forward to one day being able to give back to Access the same way our generous alumni have this year.”
