Campus Kiva

[Guest]

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[Morgan.Lucas]

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to take a minute to tell all of you about an exciting new program - Campus Kiva - that just launched in conjunction with Kiva's Lending Teams.

Campus Kiva is an international network of microfinance clubs that gives university students an easy way to play a direct role in changing lives. Campus Kiva’s mission is to educate students about the the potential impact of microfinance, and to encourage microlending through Kiva’s lending teams. In the Fall of 2008, the program officially launched at 20 university campuses worldwide and is continuing to grow. In the coming school year, Campus Kiva will provide its chapters with the infrastructure and resources they need to establish a permanent presence on campus.

University students are always looking for concrete ways to make a difference in the world.  Campus Kiva provides them with an avenue to make such definitive contributions.  And in the process, it will create an incredibly valuable network, connecting young, innovative, driven minds throughout the country.

Since you guys are some of the best and most experienced Kiva users, I wanted to see if anyone is interested in helping with the program. I am looking for people to help manage our chapters, start new ones, and provide feedback. If you want more information, let me know.

You can also get more information by checking out our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31156588833&ref=ts , and I would encourage anyone on facebook to join the group!!

Thanks!
Morgan Lucas
Director, Campus Kiva

[A Nonny Mouse]

  to KivaFriends, Morgan! 

Campus Kiva sounds like an awesome idea!   I'm also happy to see someone not far from my neck of the woods highly involved in the addictive world of Kiva (Ventura resident myself.)

Best of luck to you and to Campus Kiva!   

Nonny

[Penny]

I'm wondering if you have plans to launch a version of this for secondary level students? I work in an alternative high school, and we have a requirement for service projects (called Community Experience) that pretty much requires 4 hours of service learning/work per week throughout each quarter. We also do a 4 full day service project each May that is mandatory for all students and most staff.

I've just joined Kiva (if I turn around fast I squeak still.) I've spent two days trying to figure out ways to bring Kiva into my school. At the very least maybe a regular baked goods or pizza sale and have a group of kids decide where the money goes. (And may an individual have two accounts on Kiva.Org since I would wish to keep my personal loans separate from the school based ones.) And I don't think the District would let us do PayPal. I think we'd have to work out a way to do business checks because of the accounting etc we'd have to do here.

Anyway, this reply isn't all that coherent or cohesive. I'm just thinking out loud but those are issues (inability to do paypal) that would have to be addressed to allow public schools to participate.

[wannado]

Penny,

Would your school district let you set up a separate bank account just for Kiva?  I can see why they wouldn't want Paypal linked to regular school district funds, but perhaps they would allow a separate bank account, linked to Paypal, for Kiva.  Some local banks provide free checking accounts for student organizations.

I recently helped my daughter's school set up a Kiva program for juniors and seniors (part of the Global Issues class) and we had to work through that issue.  This is an independent school, rather than a public one, so there's probably more flexibility.  However, there are also a number of public schools that have managed to set up Kiva programs.  So, hopefully you can work something out with your district.

The Kiva program at my daughter's school has been a big hit.  I was invited to sit in on their class the day they presented their first loan selections.  They clearly had spent a lot of time in making their choices and seem to have learned quite a bit.

Marsha

[Penny]

We wouldn't be allowed to create a separate bank account. We actually just get assigned a "line item" number that credits us through school account.. that all credits and debits would apply against.