National NonProfit Recognized by PSYCH 479 Student, Professor for Class Project

Congratulations to Lorin Ballog, junior psychology major at Penn State Greater Allegheny (PSUGA), for placing first in the annual “Make A Grant” presentation and competition, presented as part of the final assignment for PSYCH 479—Psychology of Gender—last December.

The “Make A Grant Project” is a semester-long, in-class project where students identify a program, present debate-style arguments on why the project is significant, discuss potential solutions for the program, and then provide the solution that is most effective. The students then select a charity for which they hope to win a speech-style presentation competition that is judged by campus faculty and staff.

The project, which has been part of the course’s final project for the past seven years, is the brainchild of Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychology Program Coordinator, Dr. Elizabeth Mazur.  Mazur has been teaching PSYCH 479 and finding ways for students to give back through the course each fall.

Each student contributes $5 to a class fund pool, of which Mazur matches the total amount contributed and then the charity that is the focus of the winning presentation receives the funds.  The nonprofit can be local, regional or national.

In December, $200 was contributed to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, Incent National Network, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country and the nonprofit focus of Ballog’s project.  Since 2014,  Mazur and her students have contributed nearly $900 to a variety of nonprofit organizations.