What Is Your Why? Grace Molinaro ’24 and Serra Sonmez ’25 on Fundraising for Global Relief Efforts

Why do civic engagement leaders get involved in the work they do? What keeps them going in the face of challenges? In this series, What Is Your Why?, the Bard College Center for Civic Engagement highlights campus and local changemakers. In this episode, Grace Molinaro ’24 and Serra Sonmez ’25 talk with Vice President of Civic Engagement Erin Cannan about their roles in organizing the Benefit Concert for Turkey and Syria at Bard after the devastating earthquake. For Molinaro, who grew up with many Syrian neighbors, watching the news affected her personally. “I know a lot of people who are affected by the earthquake, and it was really weighing on me seeing everyone who I knew going through so much and feeling just totally helpless,” she said. “And so I decided, how about I do something about it?” Sonmez felt similarly, wanting to do more than simply raise money. “We also wanted to create an awareness through the campus,” she said.

Post Date: 06-21-2023