MPA Students' Younique Event

PROVO, Utah – Mar 15, 2019 – MPA students from the BYU Marriott School of Business volunteered with the Younique Foundation on Valentine’s Day 2019 to tie blankets for sexual abuse survivors. The Younique Foundation is a public charity that is supported by Younique, a makeup sales company. The foundation’s goal is to inspire hope in women who were sexually abused as children by providing healing services through retreats, survivor communities, and online resources.

The director of outreach for Younique Foundation, Matthew Hartvigsen, a graduate from BYU Marriott’s MPA program, came to perform mock interviews with the MPA students during the Fall 2018 semester. In doing so, he met second-year student Elisabeth Zenger from Rexburg, Idaho, a service representative in the MPA program, and coordinated the Valentine’s Day event for students to volunteer on BYU’s campus.

“I was inspired by how many students, with demanding schedules, willingly spent an hour of their time making blankets for women they will never meet,” Zenger says. “We loved thinking about the women who would be receiving these blankets. Knowing that they were going to sexual-abuse survivors motivated everyone to work harder and unified us as volunteers.”

Students in the MPA program, with help from MBA students, worked together to make more than ten blankets for the Younique Foundation. The blankets made will be a gift for survivors of sexual abuse who participate with the Younique Foundations Haven Retreat. The retreat is hosted in the mountains of Utah for female survivors of childhood sexual abuse to learn, reflect, and rejuvenate. Participants go through a variety of activities to help them heal and are given the blankets.

“These volunteer efforts allow the foundation to better serve survivors at our retreat,” says Annie Hartvigsen, sister of Matthew and volunteer coordinator at Younique. “These efforts also help survivors realize there is a whole community that cares about and supports their healing journey.”

While tying the blankets, students took advantage of the time to ask Ms. Hartvigsen different questions about the foundation and event.

“Volunteering to us means you are an advocate for survivors,” Ms. Hartvigsen says. “Volunteering includes things such as tying blankets, sharing stats, or a writing blog posts to promote general awareness and education. BYU Marriott’s MPA students are adding momentum to this campaign by both supporting survivors at Haven Retreat and spreading awareness about our foundation and the healing resources available to our community.”

The MPA program at BYU Marriott is no stranger to doing volunteer service. The program tries to do at least one or two big service activities a semester. During Fall 2018, students partnered with Provo City to do landscaping at the Provo Recreation Center in Provo. MPA students are already beginning to plan for what the next service opportunity will be.

 A common goal in BYU Marriott’s MPA program is a “commitment to a service-based career.” Events such as the blanket-tying project with the Younique Foundation help students fulfill this goal as they continue in their graduate education.

“There is power in serving together for a common purpose, and this event was a great reminder of that,” Zenger says.