Student callers stay up all night!

The Annual Fund Autumn telethon has begun its overnight calling sessions to the USA.

The Annual Fund autumn telethon is well underway, and for the past month student callers have been contacting Imperial alumni to keep them informed about life on campus and the work of the Annual Fund, as well as to ask them to consider supporting the fund through a charitable donation.

The telethon is a bi-annual fundraising appeal, which employs current Imperial students as callers to contact alumni across the world. Now, in order to reach the wide range of College alumni living in North America, the student callers are gearing up for several all-night sessions, calling from South Kensington Campus in the ICT Helpdesk throughout the night to reach alumni in the USA and Canada during their daytime. A typical overnight shift runs from midnight to 4am.

Imperial has strong connection with its North American alumni; there are numerous alumni associations which operate across the continent and strong support for the Annual Fund. In order to cater for this support, alumni in the USA are invited to direct charitable donations to the Imperial College Foundation, a non-profit corporation that exists to support the pursuit of excellence at the College. The Foundation provides a way for alumni in the USA to give tax deductible gifts to the College. These gifts support key College projects, including student scholarships through the Student Opportunities Fund.

"The overnight calling sessions are a great part of working at the telethon," said student caller James Prices, currently in the second year of his Medical degree. "It's really interesting to contact alumni in the USA and Canada, as their experiences can be so different to those in the UK; comparing the way that different alumni have chosen to continue their careers after leaving Imperial has given me a real insight into what I might want to do after I leave the College. There's a brilliant atmosphere amongst the callers during these sessions as well. Being up together at this time of the morning working together and having fun really makes it feel like we're doing something special!"

The telethon will be running overnight calling sessions on 12 November and 19 November. In addition to the USA and Canada, alumni in South Africa, Europe and the UK will be contacted through the telethon. The telethon is possible because of the kind support of the ICT who provide equipment and space for the campaign.