The Student Ambassadors Society and the Wichita State admissions office are teaming up to support the United Way of the Plains Fight4Literacy campaign— a campaign that will raise funds for students to access books, tutoring, and other academic resources. 

Student Ambassadors Society President Ivan Castillo said the importance of this campaign is to give back to students in the Wichita area, and to make sure they are equipped with a quality education for the future. 

“The main motivation behind it is that literacy really opens up the door for a lot of students, and so really starting them early with reading, and making sure they are at level really helps them be successful later on,” Castillo said. 

This campaign first started when Assistant Vice President and Director of undergraduate admissions Bobby Gandu reached out to the Student Ambassadors Society about having members participate individually. However, Castillo said that they decided as a group to help with the campaign. Castillo also mentioned that due to the COVID -19 pandemic, this cause makes it to where both groups can do a service project safely. 

“We just started doing service projects in our organization,” Castillo said. “The office of admissions which we are under was going to be a part of the Fight4Literacy campaign. Bobby Gandu,which [who] is the director of admissions came to our group and said “hey if you guys want to participate individually you can.” “Then we just made a big call to the executive team team to SAS [Student Ambassadors Association] to raise funds.” 

Castillo said that he can relate to a personal academic experience when it comes to the importance of this campaign to him. 

“To me it’s important because I personally went to a school here in Wichita that predominantly caters to minority students, so I know how important literacy is,” Castillo said. “I went to a bilingual K-8 so reading was something that was very pushed on us so I know the tremendous work that literacy can do for students.

“I know like first –  hand if you do not have those resources, it’s going to be hard to catch up. That is something that is really important to me. Providing resources for students so they can be successful.” 

The Student Ambassadors Society will be taking donations for this campaign until March 5th. 

Individuals who are interested in donating can do so through this link, or they can drop off donations to the Marcus Welcome Center and mention that it is for the Fight4Literacy campaign.