Dear Orange Friends:
Today, Ruth and I are hosting a reception honoring the leaders of new student organizations founded over the past year at Syracuse University. Each year, students breathe life into this campus through hundreds of clubs, teams, activities, and service organizations–and they constantly are creating new ones wherever there is a need or a niche. Each one has a wonderful story.
One of our newer organizations is Camp Kesem at Syracuse University. Operated by 30 Syracuse student volunteers, Camp Kesem provides a free, weeklong summer camp experience and yearlong peer support to children who are watching a family member they love endure cancer. Kesem means “magic” in Hebrew, and the idea of the camp is to bring magic to children who are much in need of it.
On Saturday, our students in Camp Kesem organized their first benefit dinner for the camp, bringing together campers, donors, families, and caregivers–and the most positive, supportive, and dynamic group of student volunteers around. The dinner was inspiring, as will be the weeklong camp session this coming August, staffed almost entirely by our students.
As our semester and academic year near an end, I remain proud of the magic our students, faculty, and staff create inside and outside the classroom. I wish all of our community well in the frantic rush through the last classes and exams and projects–and on to Commencement.
Warmest wishes,
Chancellor Kent Syverud