AGC Philanthropy Takes on Habitat for Humanity

Students from the Advertising Graduate Council took a break from ads to spend their Saturday, October 4th, working for Habitat for Humanity. Working in the division of Brush with Kindness, the mission was to enhance and revamp neighborhoods in which Habitat for Humanity builds homes. With the state of our economy, many individuals have come across rough times, which makes these efforts even more important.

This program provides affordable home improvements for lower-income households. Such repairs include caulking, gutter repairs, tree trimming, fence repairs, roofing, and concrete repair. The AGC sweated it out for 8 hours in the Texas heat while roofing and painting the exterior of a house in East Austin.

With studying advertising, it seems to invade all aspects of your life. This is precisely the reason why Philanthropy Officer, Robbie Izar, chose to work with Habitat for Humanity. "I wanted to find an experience that we could all share as a group that had nothing to do with advertising. I wanted to give AGC'ers a chance to set aside any academic worries and refocus that energy into something constructive," he said.

Going into the project with little knowledge of what they were about to do, the volunteers were glad to show up and see that the house's owner was a friendly and energetic woman. Interacting with the homeowner pointed out to the volunteers exactly how helpful and the immense changes were that they made in someone's life. "The ad grads used this as an opportunity to enrich their lives by helping others. I can only hope this experience inspires them to get involved and volunteer for causes that affect their lives,"said Izar. 

AGC had never volunteered with Habitat for Humanity before but after a successful day of volunteering, more work with Habitat may be in the future for AGC. Not only did the volunteers do something wonderful for the community, but it was also a bonding experience for the students. With a good mixture of first and second years, the students got the opportunity to interact with other students that they might not normally have contact with due to separate class schedules.

Other philanthropy effort for AGC this semester is participating in the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure and creating an advertising campaign for Birds Barbershop.