A Ball State professor wants to give his student an experience that goes beyond the classroom.
"It's all about doing, thinking and feeling," professor Gerald Waite said.
Waite teaches the Introduction to Peace Studies class this semester. In the first week, he assigned a project that will not only help his students, but also refugees in Haiti.
The goal of the project is to teach students that peace can only come when people work together, so that is exactly what the class did — worked together to raise money for Oxfam America.
Megan Whitacre, president of Oxfam America, said the organization hopes to raise money to provide clean water and sanitation items to stop and prevent further outbreaks of the cholera epidemic for 700,000 Haitians.
Just past the one-year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, there have already been two outbreaks of cholera. Without clean water, experts predict the situation will only get worse.
Whitacre said Oxfam hopes to raise money for clean water and to help rebuild the infrastructure of the country.
Tyler Fox, a sophomore communications major taking the class, said the group was able to choose which charity to support, and after watching an Oxfam video in class and having a chapter on campus, it was a no-brainer.
Junior anthropology major Sarah Rice said it wasn't as easy of a decision for her.
"It was really a toss up between Oxfam and Doctors Beyond Borders," she said. "Doctors Beyond Borders had more rules for the types of donations, which helped us make the decision."
Although the class did this project last semester, this group of students are facing another challenge.
Fundraising for Haiti was easier last year, Waite said, because the disaster just happened, but this semester it was not as fresh.
"Haiti is a difficult place at this moment. There are very few organizations putting people to work and constructing the country," he said. "As someone who has worked in refugee camps, it is a horrible place to be in the world, and to help an organization that provides clean water and helps with the outbreaks, I think we all should support that."
Last year, the class raised more than $2,000. This class raised $561, up from its expectation of $300. The class collected money at Friday Night Film Works and Late Nite and sold hot chocolate and pastries at the Scramble Light on Tuesday.
While the money raised may not seem like much, Rice said donating any money, even if it just provides one bottle of clean water to make one person's life better, is what the project was all about.
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