Thunderbird student ambassadors routinely ask alumni for gifts at the campus call center that reopened in fall 2009. But Tekena Koko ’10 went one step further.
Even before she graduates in August 2010, the call center worker pledged to give $50,000 over five years.
“I thought it would be great to make a difference in someone else’s life and get someone else to go through the life-changing experience I went through,” said Koko, who brought her 5-year-old daughter with her to Glendale, Arizona, and left her husband and 2-year-old twins at home in Rivers, Nigeria.
Overall, an average of 20 students from nine countries worked at the call center in fiscal 2009-10, generating alumni pledges of more than $233,700 from 2,264 alumni. Money raised supports Campaign Thunderbird, a campaign launched in 2008 to raise $65 million by the end of fiscal 2010-11.
The call center also helped Thunderbird achieve its goal of a 15 percent alumni participation rate in fiscal 2009-10.
“Originally I got involved with the call center because I had a background in sales and I believed I could contribute because of my experience, particularly in fundraising,” Koko said. “I knew I could raise funds.”
But that wasn’t enough for Koko; she wanted to give as well. So she talked to her friend, Gbemi Disu ’06, assistant director of Leadership Annual Giving at Thunderbird.
Disu arranged for Koko to give to the SHARE Scholarship, designed to help exceptional students in emerging markets attend Thunderbird. Scholarship recipients are set up with one or two donors as mentors, who maintain a relationship with the recipients throughout their Thunderbird experience and beyond.
Koko hopes others will follow her example of giving, but she mostly wants to give others from Africa the opportunity to have the Thunderbird experience.
“The friendships I have made so far are invaluable,” she said. “I never knew people would be so open despite differences in culture. And the professors are amazing.”
– Claire Ford