Interactive Media Students Use 'Social' Conscience to Aid Charities

Students in Matthew E. Mooney's Interactive Media in the Digital Age course are in the final days of an innovative classwide challenge, spreading the word about charitable causes via the same social-media outlets that they use for recreational communication. Under parameters established by the assistant professor of web and interactive media, the students can only promote their chosen beneficiaries through the digital media at their disposal – relyng on "shares," "likes" and "retweets" – and not through posters on bulletin boards or fliers left in campus dining halls. Among them are Rachael A. Byerly, of Williamsport, and Andrew W. Leventhal, of North Wales, web and interactive media majors who are raising money to help the Lycoming County SPCA with vaccines and other winter medical expenses through a GoFundMe page and a Facebook presence. The pair admit they "dreamed big," naming their campaign 20for20 in hopes of attracting 20 donations a day for 20 days, and set a $8,000 goal. Another group, spearheaded by Jeffrey A. Stanley, a web and interactive media major from Stewartstown, is using social media to push a campuswide clothing drive. Winter clothes are being collected in boxes located at Dauphin Hall, the Bush Campus Center and Madigan Library.