This year’s senior gift committee has decided the donations gathered for the senior class scholarship will go to out-of-state students.

Senior Ali Weiss is on the executive board of the committee and said the committee recognized a need for financial aid for out-of-state students. The focus on out-of-state students coincides with President Julie Sullivan’s goal of getting St. Thomas recognized on a national level.

“It fit directly with Dr. Sullivan’s hopes and goals for the future of St. Thomas – where she really wants to get St. Thomas on the national map and use our alumni network throughout the entire nation to connect Tommies in every part of the nation,” Weiss said. “(It would) really just make our alumni program on a national level, St. Thomas on a national level and get more out-of-state students to come to the university.”

Weiss hopes the scholarship will help students recognize the importance of giving back to the St. Thomas community.

“A lot of students here at St. Thomas have been given a scholarship or some sort of financial aid,” she said. “We really want to leave a legacy here as the class of 2015 and be able to help future Tommies – just like most of ourselves were helped along the way.”

The highest record of senior participation with the gift is 65 percent, according to Weiss. She hopes the senior class will reach the same percentage this year.

“The biggest thing I would say about the senior class gift is it’s not about the dollar amount. It’s about participation and getting every senior to participate – if that’s a dollar, if that’s 10 dollars, if it’s 100 dollars,” Weiss said.

The senior gift is donation-based with a matching program through the Old Guard, an organization of classes that are more than 50 years graduated from St. Thomas. Through the matching program, the Old Guard will donate $1,000 for every 10 percent of student participation.

Senior Malia Cone is also on the executive board and said students tend to think donating to the scholarship requires giving a large sum of money. She said any contribution, however, is encouraged and helpful.

“The way we’re going to go about saying this is like ‘give a cup of coffee,’” Cone said. “That’s going to be our marketing slogan. It’s easy as giving two dollars for a cup of coffee at Coffee Bené.”

Seniors can donate online or by purchasing senior banquet tickets or business cards. Banquet tickets will be available through Tommie Central or through university tickets. Five dollars of the ticket price will go toward the class gift. Business cards can be purchased through the Development Office website. Ten dollars of the $30 business cards will go toward the class gift.

Every senior class gift becomes an annual scholarship that will be awarded to one student each year who fits the criteria of the profile. As the scholarship grows over time it can be dispersed to multiple students. Ultimately, the scholarship has the potential to become an endowed scholarship if it reaches $50,000 in value through donations. If it reaches the endowment level the scholarship fund will never run out. Seniors are encouraged to donate to their class’ scholarship even after they graduate.

John Bannigan is a gift officer at the Development Center and the faculty adviser for the senior gift committee. He works with the committee to set up the fund and create the scholarship profile and scholarship eligibility criteria for students.

Bannigan said that after the money for the gift is raised, the university will set spending criteria.

“Say we’ll spend like $1,000, and then hopefully by the time that we get to their first 10 year reunion the scholarship will still be in place, and we can raise money so that we can grow the fund,” Bannigan said. ”And by maybe your 20th or 30th reunion you’ll finally get it up to $50,000 – and now it’s an endowed scholarship.”

The senior gift committee plans to start advertising for this year’s scholarship in April. Seniors who donate will receive a pin they can wear during graduation that will acknowledge their participation and generosity.

Margaret Galush can be reached at galu4637@stthomas.edu.