Holiday Season, the favorite time of the year for
many people, started off at RIT Croatia with traditional Charity Auctions that
took place November 17 in Zagreb at the Johann Franck, and November 24 in
Dubrovnik at the Culture Club Revelin.
Both events were run by Student Government
members, which was another great opportunity for them to showcase their organizational
skills. When asked what makes this event different as oppose to other college
events, Sven Kovačević, the President of Student Government for both campuses
commented: "At RIT Croatia the Student Government organizes a wide
variety of events, all of which are benefiting the students in one way or
another. But what makes this event different from others is that we unite all
members of our community, from students to faculty and staff, as well as Alumni
and their families, to work together and help raise as much money as possible
for a good cause in order to help us give back to the community and to the less
fortunate ones”. Niko Katušić, Vice President
of Student Government at the Dubrovnik campus calls this event a "character
builder” and emphasizes the value of being able to set everything else aside
and to help others that are in need.
When asked how they chose the recipients of this donation
Sven said that the Zagreb team looked into various factors such as the purpose
of the organization, whom do they help, and most importantly, how can this
donation be used. The mutual decision was to use the donation for purchasing
equipment for the education and development of youth and children at the "Centar
za odgoj i obrazovanje Dubrava" in Zagreb. The Student Government members at
the Dubrovnik campus usually prefer to choose individuals as donation
recipients but this year they decided to choose the association "Zajedno
do Zdravlja" from Dubrovnik. This association deals with improving
childhood and quality of life for chronically ill children, and in agreement
with the association, students decided to use the donation for purchasing much
need inhalers for children.
Event organization has a process of its own regardless of
whether the event is for charity or for profit. In both cases, there are
multiple complex layers that all need to fall in place for the event to run
flawlessly. And the preparation often starts months prior to the event, which
was the case with our Charity Auctions as well. Along the way, there are always
challenges to overcome. Sven looks at teamwork as the most challenging part of
organizing this event because it is not easy to synchronize student schedules,
as well as motivating students to participate with donations of items. Niko had
the same challenges at the Dubrovnik campus and he claims that it was a challenge
to educate students on the importance of participating without the "what’s in
it for me” attitude. This shows that there is an educational piece behind
organizing such an event with the purpose of raising awareness about the importance
of giving back to the community, which is equally important as the actual charity
donation itself.
However, in the eyes of the Student Government members, the rewarding
aspect of organizing such an event is so gratifying that all challenges instantly
fade away. "The rewarding part of the auction was stepping out on the stage and
seeing so many people who are willing to help others and seeing the high level
of engagement from all members of the Student Government team working together.
The most rewarding part was when we announced that we collected close to
20.000,00 kn! Wow, I could not believe we managed to get to this amount, which
is the highest amount ever collected at RIT Croatia auctions. It made me feel
so proud thinking about how we will be able to purchase a significant amount of
needed inhalers for the association "Zajedno do Zdravlja””, said Niko. Sven
agrees with his fellow Student Government member that the most rewarding moment
was the end result, and the fact that 15.000,00 kn was collected for "Centar za
odgoj i obrazovanje Dubrava”, which is a very impressive amount to say the
least.
The entire organization process was a huge learning
experience for our students. As the leader of the Dubrovnik Student Government
team in organizing this event, Niko believes that the skill he managed to
improve in this process was the ability to step away and to enable other team
members to take ownership as well. As Niko said "at the end, good teamwork is
what leads the leader to success and what makes events like this happen. Being that
all team members are responsible for success, it is also good to acknowledge those
individuals that did their best even outside of their areas of responsibility”.
Sven claims he used a lot of the knowledge and skills he has acquired over the
years at RIT Croatia while working on this event. "The most important skills I
used were definitely my leadership and organization skills. To lead the SG into
the right direction and to get them to use their full potential was a key
factor in organizing this event. As for my organization skills, without them
this wouldn’t have been possible. To organize this event I had to juggle many
different tasks at all times, and to monitor if everyone is doing what they
were supposed to. But with the help of the
entire team and our supervisors, we were able to get everything done”, said
Sven.
Once again, RIT Croatia can proudly applaud to the
enthusiastic and driven Student Government teams at both campuses, as well as
to all members of RIT Croatia community that participated in this year’s
Charity Auctions. We are looking forward
to many more events with this kind of selfless and giving spiRIT in the future!