This weekend Binghamton University students will have the opportunity to help send students to colleges across the globe and raise campus awareness about education in developing nations, all while enjoying dinner and entertainment in the Mandela Room.

Binghamton Students for Students International will host their annual gala, a fundraiser that creates scholarships to send children in developing nations to college, in the Old Union Hall this Sunday.

‘The BSSI gala is all about raising awareness and raising funds for other kids, other college students in developing countries,’ said Bill Liatsis, co-president of the organization.

Members of BSSI aim not only to raise funds for their belief, but also recognition among students about what their peers outside of the United States may be experiencing.

‘The education we have here is taken for granted sometimes,’ said Dan Blatt, co-president of BSSI. ‘For the kids we help, it means the world.’

According to Blatt, it costs about $500 to send a student to college for one year in some of these developing countries.

The scholarships the group provides are twofold. One of the responsibilities of students who win the scholarship is to recommend a subsequent student for the program.

‘First, it makes people pass it on,’ he said. ‘[The people they pass it on to] are supposed to be worthy and worthwhile students that they know at their university or at an accompanying university, and subsequently pass it on.’

‘The next clause is that they’re supposed to work in their homeland to provide a chance to improve their local community,’ Liatsis added.

Many could never afford an education in their communities, Blatt said, which are located in nations like Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.

Last year the formal dinner raised $7,000 ‘ allowing 14 underprivileged students across the world to have college experiences.

According to Blatt, BSSI and organizations with similar goals help raise money so these students can have the chance to attend college and ‘simultaneously raise awareness to people here about the limited education in developing countries.’

Ties between BU students and the recipients help to maintain awareness, as they go beyond the Gala.

‘The students we help keep in contact with us through e-mail,’ Blatt said. ‘We are mentors for them and we learn from each other.’

The event will highlight student groups such as the Binghamtonics, the dance group Orchesis, the Harpur Jazz Project and the Korean percussion group Sul Poong.

Dinner will be provided by the Off Campus College Council and BSSI. The event will also feature a speech from Adeolu Ademoyo, a student in the Africana studies department, who will speak about what education means to him as a Nigerian.

The tickets for the gala are $12 for students and $16 for non-students. Blatt hopes the 45 members of BSSI will sell all 300 for the second year in a row.

Every dollar raised by BSSI through the gala will be matched by the Kapadia Education Foundation, founded by Pradeep Kapadia, an energy entrepreneur originally from India and now residing in California.

Success stories of college students who worked with the Kapadia organization can be found on the foundation’s Web site. One student, Monica Sigha-Sammy from Accra, Ghana, is now studying at the University of Ghana.

‘I shall work and help other people who are needy in my community,’ Sigha-Sammy said on the site. ‘I shall particularly organize and counsel young ladies to pursue courses in high school and at college level.’