For the last several years, Michal Herzenstein, associate professor of marketing in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, has dedicated a class period in November for her BUAD 301 Introduction to Marketing students to put persuasion techniques taught in class to use.
This year’s students in the class’s honors section split into six groups of 3-4 and scattered around campus, using the techniques on fellow students, professors, and passersby to raise money for a charitable cause.
Since 2017, that charity has been Kind to Kids, a local foundation that supports children in foster care. Herzenstein, who matches what her students raised, donated $432 dollars this year to the foundation, which uses the funds to purchase Christmas presents for the children. Not bad for an hour’s worth of class time. (According to foundation records, since 2018 Herzenstein and her classes have raised $4310 for the charity.)
During the years she has utilized this exercise, Herzenstein said that none of her students had ever heard of Kind to Kids. However that changed this semester, when the charity hit home for one student, quite literally.
Sophomore Micah Elliott, a management information systems and business analytics double major with a concentration in hospitality and a minor in English, was aware of the organization because her family is part of the foster care system.
The family was driven to foster children by Micah’s youngest sister, who she says “always had foster care in her heart from a young age. We have a home, these kids don’t, let’s take them in. They don’t deserve the life they’re living when we have the opportunity to help their situation.”
Although her parents had the interest, the timing did not work out until 2020. “My siblings all play soccer, so they were constantly driving us to games,” Elliott explained. They just didn’t have the time.”
However Covid shut down the sports world, while the foster training, which entails a three-month process including weekly three-hour sessions in Dover, moved online. That kickstarted the process for the Elliotts.
“It was a hard time in the world, but it was a definite blessing that we were able to start (fostering),” Elliott said. “Our family is very close, and it was a very intentional decision that we made.”
The family, which lives in Hockessin, dedicated a room in their house for foster children, furnishing it with bunk beds so that it’s constantly ready.
They received their first children, a set of newborn twins, late in 2020. They have also fostered a set of three siblings, and later another group of four. This spring they fostered a baby for over a month, the longest of the four placements.
The family does not foster to adopt – the goal is to eventually return the children to their homes.
“My parents are amazing, they’re so willing to give. It’s really cool because not everyone has the ability to do this,” Elliott said.
“Her parents are saints,” Herzenstein added.
Kind to Kids supports foster children in grades kindergarten through college by providing educational advocacy, guidance, and resources. To prepare foster youth for young adulthood, they hold trainings on topics such as decision making, effective communication and money management.
“Once they leave the foster system, if nobody is teaching them those skills, they don’t have them. So that’s one of the main things this charity is doing,” Herzenstein said.
“With the older kids, there’s a lot of uncertainty with jumping houses. Sometimes it’s long-term, but those groups can bring consistency and support with startup housing or schooling; they make such a difference,” Elliott added.
The foundation also helps children with their academics, making sure they stay on top of their education and have all the supplies and resources they need. In December it holds a foster party prior to the holidays, where the children can pick out their unwrapped toys. The foster parents then can then wrap them and put them under the tree to be opened during their holiday celebration.
“The holidays can be a difficult time, so it’s really important for children to be able to open gifts for Christmas and for the holidays,” said Caroline Jones, the president of Kind to Kids. “So it’s really important that we come together as a community to be there for them. With our foundation, we make sure that every child receives beautiful gifts and that they know they’re special and cared for.”
“Christmas is such an uncertain time for these kids. It’s a time for family, and you’re off from school and able to be home, and be around people who love you,” Elliott added.
The siblings Elliott’s family took in during the end of 2022 came about a week before Christmas and left December 23.
“It was a very hard time for them,” she explained. “They kept asking us, ‘Are we getting presents for Christmas?’ Nobody really knew what was happening.”
“So it was really cool to have different organizations and the agencies connected with them able to get these kids presents. It was cool to see, we got the videos of the kids opening their presents on Christmas, it was the sweetest thing ever. It was a time of uneasiness and craziness, during a season where they should be loved and whole and united with family. Something as little as a five-dollar gift card means the world to them. It kind of puts things in perspective.”
Each year Herzenstein receives a thank you card from Jones for her donation. This year’s card featured a sixth-grade student who meets with an organization advocate that provides emotional and academic support, along with one-on-one private tutoring. The funds helped provide him with a new backpack and school supplies, along with a Nike basketball and t-shirt.
Stories like that are why Herzenstein and the Elliotts continue to support Kind to Kids and the foster system.
“I love that Michal teaches her students not only about marketing, but the enduring virtue of kindness and compassion and generosity,” Jones said. “It’s about giving and caring for one another and coming together as a community.”
“These gifts bring the children joy. It lifts their spirits, it brightens their days, and it’s a reminder of love and connection.”
Herzenstein and Elliott are more than happy to contribute.
“(The class project) was exciting,” Elliott said. “I’ve seen the effects of the foster system; it’s hard. So it’s fun that we were able to do something to help a cause that I’ve seen firsthand have an impact.”
“This is memorable,” Herzenstein added, “and it’s meaningful.”