International Business and Culture Course Auctions Furniture for Hurricane Maria Recovery

By Caitlin Burns | December 5, 2018

This holiday season, you can support the Hurricane Maria recovery for Puerto Rico and Dominica while getting your loved ones the furniture they want. Students in the International Business and Culture course are auctioning refurbished furniture to support the organizations Unidos, in Puerto Rico, and Fort Young Hotel, in Dominica.

The six pieces of refurbished furniture include a new set of stools, end tables, chairs, a matching end table and bureau, a padded chair, and a night stand. The furniture for the auction was donated by Dr. Annette Halpin, assistant professor in the School of Global Business; all money raised through the auction will support the organizations.

“The course is textbook focused, but by doing this service project students learned about how developing countries recover from natural disasters,” said Halpin, who teaches the class. “The students have done everything for this project– built the website, created email content, painted and refurbished the furniture, handled the finances, selected the organizations, and ran the social media campaign.”

In order to accomplish so many tasks, students were broken into groups and assigned a role. As their final project for the semester, each student group must present on how they completed the task given to them and what challenges they had to overcome.

Bids start between $10 and $60. The auction ends Dec.15 and all winners will need to pick up their furniture on campus.