How do I get on the 8:15 coffee cup sleeves

You may have noticed that the coffee cup sleeves from 8:15 at Boatwright are not an ad for Starbucks, but have the faces of University of Richmond alumni who seem to be doing some awesome things with their post-Liberal-Arts lives. During the last three years, School of Arts and Sciences administrators have been buying coffee cup sleeves for 8:15 at Boatwright and putting on them photos and information about alumni and seniors who "turn their passion into their purpose."

The sleeve idea was created by the administrators for Arts and Sciences, who wanted to make it known that students were actually in the School of Arts and Sciences and people could make careers out of a Liberal Arts degree, said Rachel Beanland, director of communications for Arts and Sciences.

Students get their shining faces on the cup sleeves by recommendations from professors and administrators, or by a random e-mail sent to Beanland. She and others decide which students will make it onto the sleeve after the senior Arts and Sciences awards ceremony in the spring. They ask the recommended student whether they would like to do it and the process begins.

In addition to the four or five seniors, the junior who wins the Goldwater Scholarship that year is also asked to be on a cup sleeve. If the students agree, people from Arts and Sciences take their photo, get their info and voila, they're keeping your hands from getting too hot.

Beanland said students had been a little hesitant to have their faces scattered around campus during the first year of the project, but by the second year students had warmed up to the idea. Now students are flattered and almost hysterical with excitement when asked to be on the sleeves, she said.

The students who end up on the sleeves usually have an interest or passion that they turn into a career after they graduate. The sleeves have two interesting facts about that student, followed by their passion and then how they turned that passion into their purpose.

"We want students to understand that if you study something you're passionate about," Beanland said, "you're going to turn it into a career."

Beanland said one of her favorite moments of the project so far was when she found out Miles Johnson, a sleeve face in 2008-2009, had won the Goldwater in 2008. He was studying abroad in Buenos Aires so she sent him an e-mail asking him if he'd like to be on a sleeve. Apparently he didn't know he had won the award yet and was notified via sleeve request.

Arts and Sciences administrators buy the sleeves from a company, which prints them and either sends them directly to the buyer or to any participating store. The sleeves do not cost much because they buy such a large number of them, Beanland said, and Arts and Sciences administrators send them over to 8:15 at Boatwright, as well as the Office of Admissions coffee bar. Prospective students need to see that something can actually be done with a Liberal Arts degree, and what better way then a smiling graduate on a coffee sleeve?

So get busy, seniors! You too could have your face on campus an extra year.

Contact staff writer Stephanie Rice at stephanie.rice@richmond.edu