Hi, my name is Adam and I'm a sophomore at Ohio Northern University, and I am sorry that you hate me.
Have you ever gotten a phone call from somebody asking for money?
I'm sure most of us have, and I'm sure most of us have hung up as well. This week's Wednesday night was the first meeting for Ohio Northern's student based, phone fundraising campaign Phonathon. This is my second year working for the call center, located in the basement of Hill Memorial, one of the most fitting buildings on campus for the gristly job we do. Armed with enthusiasm and, at this point, a memorized script, many of us will go to work calling alumni, parents, and friends of the university, from 6 to 9, Sunday through Thursday. This repetitive job is not without it's pay off, last year's total landed over $235,000 raised through Phonathon's efforts. Although yours truly was placed in
Non-Donor pools ("pools" being the grouping of previous donors/non-donors by decade and college) and called well over thousands of answering machines, I can proudly say that I contributed at least a
little.
When I say thousands of answering machines (as well as many less but some actual calls with alumni), that is by no means an exaggeration or some total amount among the entirety of the students employed, that is one caller over the course of a few months. I think I have heard every single variety of answering machine that can come preset and yes, I have an opinion on nearly every single one, although my favorite ones are those that give me glimpses into the lives of those making their own message. However, my absolute favorite aspect of work is calling the very
nice elderly alumni that graduated around 1950 (I feel as though
nice has to be emphasized because there are many people that very clearly do
not want to bothered and are perfectly capable of informing that message). These people would have graduated when our current campus would have looked like the photo above. It was a different time and I am glad that through some college job that I get to interact with our school's history in such a unique way.
When I say thousands of answering machines (as well as many less but some actual calls with alumni), that is by no means an exaggeration or some total amount among the entirety of the students employed, that is one caller over the course of a few months. I think I have heard every single variety of answering machine that can come preset and yes, I have an opinion on nearly every single one, although my favorite ones are those that give me glimpses into the lives of those making their own message. However, my absolute favorite aspect of work is calling the very nice elderly alumni that graduated around 1950 (I feel as though nice has to be emphasized because there are many people that very clearly do not want to bothered and are perfectly capable of informing that message). These people would have graduated when our current campus would have looked like the photo above. It was a different time and I am glad that through some college job that I get to interact with our school's history in such a unique way.
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