360 West recently featured work being done in a TCU course on philanthropy. The Nature of Giving course in the John V. Roach Honors College has been offered for over a decade now, but it gained enough popularity that a second section was added for spring 2024.
Students spend the semester on a project to decide how to allocate a donor-funded $100,000 to nonprofit groups, evolving their approach throughout the weeks. Personal experience inevitably enters the conversation, which leaves the students deciding what to share and not share in the class.
Autumn Rae Henry ’24 said they all have to ask, “How vulnerable do I become?”
Dean Ron Pitcock, who instructs the class, said it is the cross-discipline nature of the honors course that adds the intrigue of varying perspectives.
“The beauty of this class is that we end up with business majors learning alongside social work majors, learning alongside philosophy majors, learning alongside economics majors and political science majors and education majors,” Pitcock said.