For freshman Yasmine Arrington, chocolate chips and scholarships have something in common.
That's why she chose to host a profit share at Local Yogurt to raise money for ScholarCHIPS, an organization she founded two years ago.
“ScholarCHIPS is a non-profit organization that raises college dollars for high school graduates who have incarcerated parents, who would like to continue their education (and) go to college,” she said.
Arrington said holding the profit share at Local Yogurt was an obvious choice.
“People love yogurt,” she said. “It’s really accessible. (Local Yogurt) is the first place I thought of.”
Arrington sat in Local Yogurt from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. March 7, wearing a black and green ScholarCHIPS T-shirt and made herself available to answer any questions anyone had about the organization.
The “CHIPS” part of the name stands for “Children with Incarcerated Parents.” Arrington said the project is particularly personal to her because she has been without her incarcerated birth father for most of her life.
“I didn’t have him in the household, especially coming to college,” she said. “So this is very near and dear to my heart.”
Arrington said more than 100 people came to the profit share in support of the organization. Senior Elliott Richardson, a friend of Arrington’s, sat at a table with her for more than an hour.
“The experience was really eye-opening and exemplifies the support that the Elon community shows among each other,” Richardson said. “A lot of faculty, staff and students stopped by LoYo to support ScholarCHIPS. I was just glad to be a part of it all.”
Freshman Tino Monroe, Arrington’s boyfriend and marketing representative for ScholarCHIPS, also came out to support the cause.
“I’m here at the profit share because I fully support Yasmine in her pursuit to provide a goal for the students,” he said. “And that is the ScholarCHIPS organization providing scholarships for individuals, and the profit share is a way to get towards that goal.”
Arrington said she had a limited time to plan for the event. After seeking approval a few weeks ago, she found out she had the go-ahead six days before the event, which meant she had to rush to advertise.
“I sent an email to some folks, I sent texts to a couple people and then they told their fraternities and their sororities and they told the athletes,” she said.
Richardson got involved with ScholarCHIPS when Arrington approached him about advertising to get the word out about the organization's events. He said Arrington’s motivation and drive draws people to her.
“I believe Yasmine will be very successful in whatever she wants to do in life,” he said. “Her authenticity and true passion for helping others is the main reason that I wanted to contribute to ScholarCHIPS in any way that I could.”
The success Arrington found with the fundraiser led her to the conclusion that a profit share is a great promotion tactic.
“It’s easy and it’s fast,” she said. “It’s one of the many avenues to raise funds and to get people to know about it, because now people are going to recognize the green when they see it.”