UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State College of Education is dedicated to preparing educators and leaders who will improve the lives of individuals in a changing and complex global society. Part of that mission involves helping alumni meet the demands of their professions.

The College of Education’s Staff Advisory Council (SAC) has embodied that philosophy with its campaign to assist the college’s alumni currently working as teachers with obtaining essential classroom supplies.

SAC does one service project a year, according to Madison Woomer, academic program coordinator in the College of Education and a member of SAC’s Events Committee. “This was just an idea from the committee to go and give back to our College of Education graduates,” she said.

“Anytime we have a SAC service project, we’re trying to give back to the community,” she continued. “We’re the College of Education so why not give back to teachers, especially teachers who were trained here at Penn State?”

Using the College of Education’s social media pages, SAC put out a call for alumni teachers who have an Amazon wish list of items for their classrooms to contact the college. While the organizers initially expected only a few people to respond, they received an overwhelming response.

In about four hours, nearly 200 alumni teachers reached out — so many that a deadline had to be placed on responding. Even after the deadline, more than 100 others reached out with their lists. Items requested included pencils, folders, sensory toys (e.g. Play-Doh), posters and classroom décor.

SAC members initially randomly selected four lists from those who made the deadline and asked willing College of Education staff members to help clear those lists by purchasing items to be delivered directly to their classrooms. After some of the lists were mostly cleared, three more teachers were selected, bringing the total to seven.

The teachers who submitted their wish lists were mostly from Pennsylvania, Woomer said, but also from different states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey. They also represent diverse school districts, she added, including those in lower-income urban areas.

“Being able to give our teachers whatever they need to have a successful school year was a main priority,” Woomer said.

While SAC wanted to try out this project on a smaller scale this year, Woomer said they have hopes of expanding their outreach to help more teachers in the future.

For more information about the SAC Amazon wish list campaign, contact Woomer at mmm7153@psu.edu.