IUPUI Contributes to United Way Agencies In Many Ways

INDIANAPOLIS – As the IUPUI United Way Campaign continues to get closer to its goal of $360,000, numerous staff, faculty and students contribute to United Way agencies in other ways. Countless hours of volunteer time are donated to agencies working on projects, serving on boards and lending expertise.

One faculty member, Beth Lykins in the School of Informatics, works with her freshman introductory course to design websites for United Way agencies. This gives her students an opportunity to work with a real world situation and the organization benefits by getting the design for free.

“I can’t give them a lot of money,” said Lykins. “But I can give them talent.”

The students create teams and act as a web development company would in conducting research and designing a site that meets their client’s needs. At the end of the semester, they present their designs to the client and the client selects one.

Some of the agencies Lykins has worked with include Heritage Place of Indianapolis, Public Action in Correctional Effort, Inc. /Offender Aid & Restoration, Inc. (PACE/OAR), and Kaleidoscope Youth Center. For agencies that need help converting the student designs into working Web sites, Lykins has also worked to identify other faculty on campus who could help make the sites reality.

Pledges toward IUPUI’s United Way goal can be made online at www.iupui.edu/~uwaycamp.