Dublin City University Educational Trust’s annual telethon to raise critical funds for Access scholarships at DCU begins tonight. Over the next three weeks, from 20th May to 8th June, a team of 27 DCU student callers will be reaching out to DCU alumni to discuss the latest news and events at the university and asking them to consider supporting life-changing Access scholarships.
DCU’s Access Programme makes third level education attainable to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and enables them to thrive and excel in their studies by providing a range of personal, academic and financial supports.
Demand for Access scholarships has increased significantly in recent years, with Access student numbers at DCU growing from 424 in 2012 to 1,258 this year. DCU alumni have shown great enthusiasm for the programme during recent telethon campaigns and have played an important role in helping DCU Educational Trust to meet this substantial increase in need.
Speaking as the student caller team completed their final day of training, Jim Canavan, Interim CEO of DCU Educational Trust stated:
“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of DCU alumni during recent telethon campaigns. However, our telethons are about so much more than just raising funds. Building relationships with DCU’s supporters for today and for the future is at the core of what we do. Our student callers are wonderful ambassadors for the university and every single telethon call is valuable to us for the connection that it maintains between DCU and its graduates, regardless of whether that call results in a donation.”
One student caller, Paulina Trzeciak is returning to work on her second telethon campaign. Speaking as the callers prepared for the first night of this campaign she explained:
“I really enjoyed my conversations with DCU’s alumni during the telethon last year and am looking forward to even better discussions this year. I found that DCU alumni really enjoy hearing about the exciting new developments at the university and are very willing to share career insights and advice with student callers. Their generosity in supporting Access scholarships was also amazing last year and I have no doubt they will get behind this campaign once again!”
DCU alumni who would like to register their interest in receiving a call during the telethon can do so by clicking here.
