A school trip turns into a fundraising drive

The Donors: Junmei Yeo and fellow business students

The Gift: $10,000

The Cause: Project Nanhi Kali

The Reason: To fund education for impoverished girls in India

A few years ago Karl Moore, an associate business professor at McGill University, launched a program called Five Hot Cities of the World Tour. Each year for five years, a group of business students visits one emerging international business centre to meet local executives and tour various companies.

There have been two trips so far, to Israel and the United Arab Emirates. This week, 29 students went to India for the third instalment of the program and they will spend time in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.

Along with meeting local executives, the group will be doing something else this year - raising money for an Indian charity. The fundraising idea came from Junmei Yeo, a first-year MBA student who has worked on other charitable causes. When Prof. Moore asked if she would help make a video for the trip, Ms. Yeo quickly turned it into a fundraising drive. "I said, 'I don't just want to do a video. If I want to do something I want to do something that I can be proud of,'" she recalled.

Ms. Yeo, 25, contacted some Indian students at McGill to find a local charity. That led her to Project Nanhi Kali, an organization that helps unprivileged Indian girls attend school. With the help of some other business students, Ms. Yeo put together a challenge for fellow participants on the trip: They have to raise $10,000 for the charity during their 10-day visit. The effort is now a graded component of their coursework and the group has put together a video outlining the campaign (http://PayItForward.mcgill.ca). During the trip, Ms. Yeo and the others will visit Project Nanhi Kali and meet some of the girls.

"We are not just business students," she said. "We believe in sustainable business solutions and changing the world in little ways."

See full article: The Globe and Mail, February 18, 2011