The Senior Gift Committee (SGC) has boldly spearheaded student fundraising for the Cal Fund for decades. But why are these brave, generous Bears so devoted to educating their peers about the power of giving?
Tanisha Syeda Muquit ’17, vice chair of logistics for the 2016–17 committee, may have some answers. The Bangladesh-born, Union City-raised senior is also involved with the Rally Committee, New Student Services, and CalSo — but her path to Cal wasn’t always so clear.
As a high schooler, Muquit was 100 percent certain that she belonged at Cal, but she didn’t get in initially and had to make an appeal. “Despite my excitement, I was really scared.… I wasn’t good enough the first time. What makes me good enough now?” In the throes of “major imposter syndrome” after failing a midterm, she found her way to the Student Learning Center. “Those tutors made me realize that struggling is a shared experience and does not make you less than you are.”
Tanisha Syeda Muquit ’17
Muquit got involved with the SGC, in part, to ensure that students will always have access to such campus offerings. “We didn’t become so great out of thin air,” she says. “Resources such as the learning center, the Public Service Center, and the Disabled Students Program all get funding from the Cal Fund.”
Muquit knows the committee is asking students to give on top of rising tuition and difficult economic and political times. “But we are also asking them to give back to a place that shaped them, and to offer that opportunity to another.”
Paying it forward has been SGC’s mission since it first raised $48.10 in 1874. The 2015–16 committee raised $91,091, and this year’s SGC plans to continue that proud ascent.
