Student fundraiser previews possible future as a grad

Document Tools

By Erica Branda

"I was calling people who are basically me in the next few years," says Dardano. "It was interesting to see where they are in life and what is possible."

Over the course of two nine-week calling campaigns — one in the fall and one in the spring — Dardano and his calling teammates phoned more than 50,000 alumni. His primary goal was to help raise $500,000 for endowments to support student scholarships, awards, bursaries and the library. And in the process Dardano learned a great deal about philanthropy.

"I was pleasantly surprised to learn how generous and charitable people are. Some of our alumni are so successful, and they are happy to donate back to students. Many gave credit to SFU for their success."

Dardano is looking forward to applying some of the communications and social skills he acquired to his new career. He will be studying to become a high school social studies teacher this fall through the SFU Faculty of Education’s International PDP program.

"This will give me the opportunity to apply my knowledge of geography to help students learn about the effect that humans are having on the earth — areas like global warming and environmental exploitation. People need to learn about this at an early age so they can work on it when they get older."