When a crisis strikes, students are forced to figure out how to balance school and get through a tough time. To help those in crisis, two classes in the Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department created an emergency fund.

The fund, Creating ¢hange For Students By Students, will be administered through the Dean of Student’s Office and the Student Relations Team to provide students with food, clothing, shelter and transportation in times of need. To promote the fund, the AEMM Event Management: Practicum classes hosted the third annual Holipalooza celebration Dec. 6 at the Conaway Center.

“[The class] wanted [Holipalooza] to give a sense of holiday, and part of holidays is giving to the community,” said Stephanie Kosgard, a senior AEMM major in one of the classes. “As a class, we were having a difficult time trying to think of one charity that everybody at Columbia would want to sponsor, so we made [one] up.”

According to Kari Sommers, assistant dean of Student Life and one of the Event Management: Practicum instructors, the class has created a bucket campaign in which students can donate change at 40 campus locations, including campus cafes and Shop Columbia. The class also sold candy canes in the 33 E. Congress Parkway Building on Dec. 5 to raise money for the fund.

Sommers said the Alumni Office also recently adopted the name Creating ¢hange and formed its own emergency fund called Creating ¢hange For Students By Alumni.

“As [alumni] raise funds, those funds will be administered through a committee,” Sommers said. “[Alumni funds] are tuition and textbook funds, so more ongoing support. The Creating ¢hange For Students By Students fund is an acute, immediate emergency need.”

Kosgard said Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs, approached the class about creating the fund and promoting it during Holipalooza.

“[Kelly] really wanted our class to set the precedent for an awesome Holipalooza because most kids in our class have never heard of Holipalooza,” Kosgard said. “[Kelly] said he wanted it to get to the scale of Manifest.”

Kosgard said all proceeds from Holipalooza will go toward Creating ¢hange For Students By Students. In addition to the money raised, Kosgard said she wrote a donation request to Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Business Affairs Ken Gotsch.

Gotsch said he showed the letter to President Warrick L. Carter, who donated $10,000 to the fund.

“[Holipalooza] is the kind of thing that during these difficult times, whatever [Columbia] can help raise through this terrific program, I think would help everybody,” Gotsch said.

Holipalooza consisted of a dance party, ornament making, games and a student disc jockey battle. Student DJ Ramon Alverez-Smikle, a junior AEMM major, won the battle, along with a $150 gift card to

Guitar Center.

“I think it is really cool that we got student DJs to be a part of [the event] and we are showing off Columbia talent,” said Merideth Hagerty, a junior marketing communication major who helped organize the event.

Along with DJs, the event included other student organizations such as Common Ground, Columbia’s LGBTQA student organization, the campus library, the Christian Filmmakers Club, Multi-Cultural Affairs and Battle of the Bands.

“I am proud of all the partnerships that have showed up … to make the event something other than our class being a part of it,” Hagerty said. “I think our mission was to make a Columbia event for everybody, and … we have been able to do that”

Jeannie Haze, a junior theater major, heard about the event through a friend and said she had a good time.

“Compared to other events, [Holipalooza] was really nice, and overall it had a very relaxed atmosphere,” Haze said.