One IT colleagues,
Big Give, UC Berkeley's annual day of fundraising, is just a week away! We would love for our One IT community to donate to the Student Technology Equity Program (STEP) Gift Fund during this campaign; your support will help ensure equity in education and experience for all undergraduate and graduate students.
How does giving to the STEP Fund directly help students?
Gifts to STEP will have tremendous impact, here are some examples:
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$25 provides one student with noise-cancelling headphones.
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$100 compensates a student employee for 5 hours of work to support the operations of STEP and provides them with a valuable employment opportunity.
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$500 equips four students with complete sets of peripheral hardware, including a drawing tablet, a webcam, noise-cancelling headphones and an external microphone.
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$1,000 provides a state-of-the-art, high-performance laptop for a student in need.
What students are saying about STEP
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“Thank you SO MUCH for your work and provision of this incredible and important resource. It was a major help to have access to these technology resources and I felt a better sense of security and more confident I could work effectively during lockdown.” — Brita "It was a very helpful service to have during this time of uncertainty. It was a life saving device. Thank you so much to everyone who made this program possible." — Daniel |
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“The STEP program was very helpful! Even after classes went back in person I was taking a remote class and it helped having a laptop. Schoolwork and zoom classes would have been much more difficult had I not had access to a laptop. Thank you!” — Sarai |
“The Sonim XP8 [hotspot] was instrumental in allowing me the opportunity to connect and attend my classes and complete assignments for school. I am very grateful to STEP for providing this service and their continued support of students that need technological support to complete their studies.” — Stephanie |
We completely understand if donations are not feasible at this time. You can still be a huge help and advocate by sharing info about the fund with friends and family, talking about STEP with students you encounter who may benefit from the program and spreading the word in general - even after Big Give ends!
Thank you for your partnership in support of UC Berkeley students.
Warm regards,
Jenn Stringer, Associate Vice Chancellor for IT and Chief Information Officer
Anne Marie Richard, Director of Student Affairs IT