2019 in review

by Rachel Anderholder

happy new year from carpe mundi!

Here from our office in Portland, we’re blown away that we’ve reached the year 2020, and we’re preparing to send students out in the world for the 8th year in a row! Whether you’ve been with us from the start in 2013, or you’re new to the organization, we hope you had a wonderful holiday season and that your year is off to a promising start. 

As 2019 has now come to a close, we wanted to take a few minutes to share with you some of Carpe Mundi’s highlights from 2019.

 STUDENTS
 In 2019, 12 incredible Carpe Mundi students traveled to Southeast Asia, India, and Spain and Morocco (a first for Carpe Mundi students). Of those students:

• 75% are students of color 

• 92% are first-generation college students 

• And 92% had never traveled outside of their home/heritage country(ies) before 

They had incredible experiences, and thrived academically as well, with students earning a cumulative 3.69 GPA on their Carpe Mundi Portland State University courses. All 12 students continued their college education this fall. 

In 2019 we reached 99 program alumni and are supporting 18 students in 2020. Considering this growth, last year we undertook our first large scale evaluation project to better understand the long-term impact of Carpe Mundi programming on our students’ educational outcomes. The first results are in - and are staggering - read below see our statistics. 

OFFICE UPDATES
In 2019 we welcomed two new staff members, Carol John and Soumya Nadabar. Carol is the PDXchange Program Director and will be traveling to Central America with her cohort of students in February. Soumya is an AmeriCorps VISTA focusing on fundraising, recruitment, and alumni engagement. With these new additions, Carpe Mundi has nearly doubled its staff capacity, and it’s been incredible to develop such a strong team. 

FUNDRAISING NEWS
Thanks to your support, we ended the year strong, surpassing our Year-End Giving goal by raising $3310 during the month of December. We are so grateful for this support that will directly benefit the 18 students preparing to depart in February (read more about this year’s students next). 

And saving the biggest news for last - Carpe Mundi is thrilled to announce that we are the recipients of a multi-year grant from the Stoller Family Foundation! This is by far the most impactful grant we’ve received as an organization, and we will use the funds to create a sustainable foundation for the organization - diversifying fundraising and piloting potential expansion projects to serve more students. We are incredibly grateful for this partnership from the Stoller Family Foundation, and are excited to dive into some new projects in 2020. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to reflect on the accomplishments of the last year and share our good news with you. Carpe Mundi strongly believes in the power of community to create positive impacts for our students. Thank you for being a part of their journeys.