May 1, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
This spring, in a high-tech twist on the old-fashioned barn raising, students studying multimedia and Web design worked with charities across the country to help them build their first Web sites.
More than 275 students at 12 schools that are part of the Art Institutes educational network donated their services to build Web sites for more than 35 small nonprofit organizations. The students met with the charities over several months to learn about the organizations’ work and goals for the Web sites. Then, after a final, frenetic day of coding and crafting, the Web sites were scheduled to go live during a national Webraising on April 28.
The event showed students the importance of volunteerism at the same time that it offered them valuable professional experience, according to Fran Berger, a spokeswoman for the New England Institute of Art & Communications, in Brookline, Mass.
“You want students to know how to work in the real world, and how to deal with clients,” she says. “It’s very easy to find a business that says, ‘Fine, do my thing for free.’ But this way, they can understand the power of trying to make a difference.”
