Student Foundation members Bart Stout and Brittany Copeland recently accepted an award for the organization at the Association of Student Advancement Programs' national conference.

The Georgia Tech Student Foundation has received a national award from the Association of Student Advancement Programs.

The Outstanding Organization Award in the Student Foundation category was presented at the association's national conference in August. Student Foundation leaders Brittany Copeland and Bart Stout accepted the award.

"Receiving an award like this is a chance for us to step back and say, 'Yes, we do have an outstanding program and we are a vital resource on our campus,'" said Copeland, who served as president of the Student Foundation in 2006-07. "Hopefully, we will attract even more interest from other schools and continue to help them as they establish their own student foundation programs."

Modeled after the Georgia Tech Foundation, the Student Foundation was established to provide students with experience in charitable fundraising and the management, investment and allocation of gift revenue. The program was launched in 1986 with a $100,000 contribution from J. Erskine Love Jr., ME 49. The students are now managing an $800,000 endowment.

Committed to enhancing campus life by allocating funds to existing student organizations and students who wish to create new programs, the Student Foundation last fall awarded $20,000 in grants in celebration of its 20th anniversary.

This year, the foundation is launching a new project, the Freshman Foundation. Stout, the current Student Foundation president and a fifth-year industrial engineering major, said, "The purpose of this new initiative is to give first-year students a truly unique experience that will prepare them for larger leadership roles within the Georgia Tech Student Foundation and across campus. The freshmen will have the opportunity to see firsthand how a successful organization is run and plan their own events. Through investing time and energy into these freshmen, we hope to ensure the success of the Student Foundation in the long term as they develop into future leaders of this organization."

Copeland, a senior majoring in industrial design, is the Freshman Foundation board adviser.

The Georgia Tech Student Foundation differs from other programs across the country, Copeland said, "because we have so much ownership of the whole process. Our students decide when to buy and sell stocks and our students decide whom to allocate funds to. A lot of advisers from other schools cringe at the idea of giving students so much control over $800,000, but it works for us because with great power comes great responsibility.

"We take what we do very seriously and very methodically, and because of that, we have been tremendously successful. I think we are a model for what students are truly capable of and how ownership motivates students to do great things."