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Engineering II is one of the buildings connected to the College of Engineering and Computer Science, consisting of classrooms, offices, labs and more. Some of the other buildings include Engineering I and the L3 Harris Corporation Engineering Center.

The College of Engineering and Computer Science exceeded $150,000 in donations for this year's UCF Day of Giving.

CECS raised a total of$150,877.78, a record-breaking amount for the college. UCF Day of Giving is a 24-hour event run by the UCF Foundation in which people in the UCF community can donate to the university through direct donations to specific programs or colleges and compete in donation challenges.

Our nation needs engineering students. We need engineers, said Jacqueline Sullivan, adjunct instructor of CECS. Were not going to have them unless we grow them here.

Sullivan, an alumna herself, received her masters degree in environmental engineering at UCF. After years working in the industry followed by working in STEM camps for younger students, she returned to the university 10 years ago to teach environmental engineering courses.

Being a donor in this year's Day of Giving on April 7, Sullivan said there are two reasons she donates. First, she is grateful for what the college gave her, and second, she has a desire to support young future engineers.

Not only did CECS exceed previous years, the colleges donations for 2022 surpass the money raised in 2018 ($5,512), 2019 ($4,672)and 2021 ($11,748) combined, with a gap year in 2020. Since 2018,CECS has seen a2,637.26% increase in donations.

Carla Cordoba, associate director of UCF Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, said 2018 was the first year UCF hosted Day of Giving.

Francesca Sagliano, associate director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, said that among the other donations, there were two large anonymous ones including one at $25,000 and another at $50,000. She said the college found that many previous donors who may have stepped back during the height of the pandemic came back into the fold to support the university.

UCF is a special place that is really starting to grow and become more top of mind for people, Sagliano said. I think we were in some ways kind of a hidden gem for a really long time.

Sagliano said that donors are able to choose an area of impact that they would like their money to go to along with allowing them to donate to even more specific places by adding a comment to their donation.

The main five highlighted donation campaigns included the Deans Excellence Fund; General Scholarship; the Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute;GEMS and WISE Program Fund focused on women in STEM; and the Minority Engineering Program.

Among these, Sagliano said the two most popular were scholarships and diversity in STEM through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

What are you passionate about? Because I am sure that I can plug you in with someone within this university where you can help make an impact, Sagliano said.

Sagliano said allowing donors to donate in a multitude of ways lets the Day of Giving be more donor centric. She also said this year, the university had a total rebrand for Day of Giving by tapping into the more competitive side of donors with social media challenges to attract a larger audience.

Students work and socialize in the Engineering II atrium. Events throughout the year are hosted here, including many of the events hosted during Engineer's Week in February.

As someone who works with alumni, Sagliano said the college tries to share the importance of giving back, telling them the U.S. News and World Report counts the number of alumni giving back to the university as a metric in rankings. She said this ranking contributes to making a degree from UCF more valuable.

Sullivan said that alumni giving back helps support President AlexanderCartwrights goal for UCF to become a top 50 public research university.

Prior to UCF hosting Day of Giving, there have been various efforts, such as Giving Tuesday, that help raise donations in which the university has reached out to alumni. In 2020, when Day of Giving was not able to happen, $164,000 came into the university through this event.

Our really incredible faculty, our alumni, the research and the programs that were doing here - thats going to be world-changing, Sagliano said. Were really trying to shift the focus on that and amplify that message.

In her time working at UCF, Sagliano saw the creation of the Lockheed Martin Cyber Innovation Lab, the Siemens Digital Grid Lab, and the GE/FP&L Microgrid Control Lab, helping students gain hands-on experience and connect with the industry. She said she also saw new scholarships and growth in student programs.

Sullivan said capital funds is one area that the college could benefit from receiving donations to continue expanding facilities for students to use hands-on learning, similar to the labs Sagliano mentioned. Sullivan said the Texas Instruments Innovation Lab is normally crowded and exemplifies a need for expansion.

Sullivans goal of helping future engineers shines through senior industrial engineering major Mitchell Hunsucker, who said he attributes the beginning of his current success to being Sullivan's student in the introduction to engineering course.

Hunsucker, who also serves as the director of the student team for ELI2, has witnessed the benefits of donations such as those given during Day of Giving.

My saying is 'a little nice goes a long way,'" Hunsucker said.

Hunsucker said that he believes the university is able to see such a significant increase in donations due to the amount of talent coming into UCF along with the opportunities students are provided.

Hunsucker started the First Step program, a group dedicated to helping first year CECS students earn internships and leadership positions. He said that every year since starting the program, the first-year students coming in are more focused, experienced and prepared.

He said some things he would like to see are more storage spaces available for engineering programs and registered student organizations, club project funds and other additions to assist students growth beyond the classroom.

Junior electrical engineering major Julia Lampert had the opportunity of doing research in her first year at UCF, something donation money goes toward. She said research is big especially for engineering and STEM students to understand their major and decide what they want to do after college.

Lampert said her time in research helped her decide that it was not what she wanted to do post-graduation, which she wouldnt have found out otherwise.

Another area Lampert said she thought could use funding is workshops that could be available to all engineering and STEM students, not just those who are in clubs. This funding would alleviate students from feeling pressured to pay club dues to get this extracurricular experience.

Lampert said she would like to see better and more equipment for engineering students to utilize as well.

We always need new equipment, new stuff to play around with and to learn how to use for us to go into the real world and actually know how to use it, Lampert said. The only way that we can get that is through donations.

For those looking to donate, Hunsucker said he encourages them to tour UCF and CECS to see the opportunities offered along with the students who are benefitting from these opportunities. Hunsucker said he plans to donate in the future after graduation and even now tries to at least give $5.

I, as a student, know what these donations do to help from the student perspective, Hunsucker said. If theres a slight difference I can make to improve on the education, the projects and everything UCF has to offer, Ill definitely do it.

Beyond the classroom, Sullivan said that the upward trend in donations could be attributed to the fact that the UCF community is truly becoming Knight Nation. She said the bonds, memories and long-lasting friendships that students make will support UCF in the future.

Youve got to be grateful for what you have and help support that which helped you so much, Sullivan said. Pay it forward.

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College of Engineering and Computer Science raises record donations total for UCF Day of Giving - NSM.today