SOUTHFIELD — There’s a day for giving thanks. There’s a day for getting deals. (Well, several of them, actually, from Black Friday to Cyber Week.) And now, there’s officially a day for giving back. It’s called Giving Tuesday, and it’s today. It’s part of a global movement to celebrate generosity and the spirit of giving.
This year, we ask you to consider a gift to The Engineering Society of Detroit on Giving Tuesday. Here’s a link for donations.
ESD strengthens the engineering community in Michigan by encouraging our most talented students, regardless of gender, race or economic status, to pursue careers in engineering.
We do this through high school and middle school programs, in which more than 800 students and more than 250 mentors participated in 2015.
ESD’s mission is embodied in young people like Andrew, Mackenzie and Max — the trio of St. John Lutheran School alumni who represented their school in ESD’s Future City Michigan Regional competition five years ago — and who are now all freshman engineering students at Michigan universities. Andrew is at the University of Michigan, Mackenzie at Oakland University, and Max at Lawrence Technological University.
Max puts it this way: “Future City is a program that made me think about the problems that affect our world. I was a seventh grader at that time, and before that I would not have thought about the need to find renewable resources or making water available to everyone. It’s a program that really wakes you up and tells you that you can make a better future. Future City is something that can inspire future generations to make a better place, and I know that the program definitely opened up the door for me to study engineering. When giving back to Future City it’s not just donating to the program, but it’s investing in the kids that learn from the program.”
And Mackenzie says giving back for her is part of a family and faith tradition: “I honestly love serving others. Taking five minutes out of my day to help someone out is a very reasonable cost for making someone’s day brighter — and that is the reason I love to serve, to improve the lives of others. Not coincidentally, this is also the reason I decided to pursue a career in engineering.”
To support programs from Future City to Engineering SMArT Michigan to our college chapters, we ask you to consider a gift to ESD — an investment in today’s youth and tomorrow’s enginering profession.
And you can keep giving years and years into the future — since ESD also accepts bequests, life insurance beneficiary designations, and retirement fund beneficiary designations. Visit www.esd.org or call (248) 353-0735, and we’ll get the legacy process started.