By Michael Purtell
Any one student is a thread of connections: Families, clubs and communities all help young people get into position to become a college student. SUNY Plattsburgh’s new partnership with The Contribution Project can help a lucky student give back to the communities that influenced them.
The Contribution Project is open for partner school’s undergraduate students aged 14 to 25 to submit their personal projects for approval to receive $400 towards improving their community, school or neighborhood.
“Your contribution project is not just about changing campuses, it’s about promoting change on a global level,” said Allison Swick-Duttine, Plattsburgh’s Interim Director for the Center of Student Involvement.
THE CONTRIBUTION PROJECT
The Contribution Project was founded in 2019 by Dr. Anthony Burrow, who received the Engaged Scholar Prize from Cornell for helping students engage with learning. Inspired by his success, Burrow created The Contribution Project as a means of continuing to help students engage with learning they were passionate about.
The project quickly grew to include several SUNY schools in its pool of partner programs, including Binghamton and Stony Brook Universities. This is the first year the partnership comes to Plattsburgh’s campus.
Over the five year existence of the project, the organization’s website boasts more than 850 contributors have been supported in achieving their submitted projects.
Contributions range in scope wildly. Sponsored projects featured on contributionproject.org include a student who provided her peers with dryer balls in order to reduce the production of microplastics from dryer sheets, installation of blue-bird houses in Ithica, inviting youths impacted by the justice system to Cornell for a day and installing a raised bed garden for community use.
PLATTSBURGH CONTRIBUTIONS
The school was contacted over the summer to join the project, Swick-Duttine said. Plattsburgh joins SUNY Morrisville as two new partners to the program to start the 2025 academic year.
Over the first two weeks of submissions being opened, Plattsburgh students have submitted six contributions. The Center of Student Involvement has been in charge of advertising the project to campus, and hopes to see that number rise.
“Student engagement and involvement has been somewhat difficult to capture since the pandemic,” Swick-Duttine said. “All we can do is our best to reach who we can.”
Swick-Duttine believes as the deadline approaches, the project will see more submissions than it did in the first weeks.
“Like anything on a college campus, people tend to wait until the last minute to submit things,” Swick-Duttine said.
Students can submit their contribution projects for approval through the online application until Feb. 21.
