When May Week Alternative (MWA) started 7 years ago, the founder, George Rosenfield, set out to revolutionise the way we think about celebration during May Week. The point is to celebrate giving and donating, in addition to the end of exams, during May Week. On YouTube, you can find a TEDx talk by him entitled “Rethinking Celebration: The Positive Case for Giving”. Understandably, there have been some misunderstandings over the name, but no such thing as bad publicity, right?

When MWA comes up in conversations, the question of whether committee members can go to May Balls is almost a given. “Our name is confusing, we know,” Sarannia acknowledges. “We’re not going to stop you from having fun during a week where you deserve to celebrate!” Aarushi then says. As proof, Aarushi highlights how she went to the St. John’s May Ball in first and second-year. Sarannia went to the Churchill May Ball in second-year.

“We want to shift the focus back to celebrating giving”

Sarannia summarises that their ethos is “to do good and feel good”. The "doing good" refers to MWA’s recommendation to donate £150 to the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF). The thinking is that you wouldn’t be using more or less money than if you were going to a May Ball. The price tag of a £150 donation may scare students, but you “absolutely do not” need to donate this much, Aarushi emphasises. Any intentional donation is considered to be a significant donation.

The "feeling good" refers to maximising impact with MWA’s chosen charity— the AMF. The AMF is independently ranked to be one of the most effective charities in the world by third-party charity evaluators such as Giving What We Can.

As third-year medics, Sarannia and Aarushi learnt in first-year that mosquito nets are cheap and incredibly effective as a solution to a devastating problem; more than 1,000 children under 5 die from malaria everyday. “We tend to forget about problems that aren’t happening right in front of us," Aarushi adds.

But why donate to the AMF specifically through MWA? Because of their double-matched funding. For example, if you donate £100 pounds through the society, they will donate £200 overall on your behalf. However, they will definitely not stop you if you want to donate to other charities. At least 100% of your donations go to the charity of your choice, none go to its socials or events.

Traditional fundraising activities such as bake sales have been popular and for good reason— cupcakes and the bonus of being able to help others! However, the danger with this, as Sarannia and Aarushi points out, is that the cause itself becomes an afterthought and the activities are centred around how they can serve you, making no long term impact.

“We want to shift the focus back to celebrating giving” Aarushi highlights. MWA wants to change minds, and they do this through their 38+ college reps. 80% of donations last year came from the work of the college reps.

"You know that feeling when someone recommends something so strongly that it’s almost infectious?"

Discussing how Aarushi and Sarannia ended up joining the society, Sarannia notes that at the end of first-year, she needed something outside of her degree. “I became good friends with one of the Vice-Presidents and he highly recommended it to me. You know that feeling when someone recommends something so strongly that it’s almost infectious?” In the end, Sarannia continued with it because of the cause and community.

For Aarushi, her brother recommended the book Doing Good Better. It made her think about what good she could do as a future doctor and outside of that. “I also saw a Rohan Yesudian video on YouTube, who was a Cambridge medic, where he went to a MWA summer party.” Both Aarushi and Sarannia credit Rohan as being that Cambridge YouTuber that helped them immensely during the application process.

Sarannia and Aarushi also know that their work with MWA is fused with their future identities as doctors. “As medics, we always complain in the first few years about not being able to see patients in the ward.” For Sarannia, this is a way of being able to achieve a tangible impact before she qualifies as a doctor. If it weren’t for the people aspect, Sarannia says she would not be able to do this degree. “Have you seen second-year medicine?” Sarannia points out.

Noting the reasons why people should join MWA, Sarannia highlights that when you meet people who are so invested in helping others, chances are they’re going to be a good group of people. Aarushi urges us all to “think about where you want your time to go during university, the impact you want to make, and [to] like all of [their] Instagram reels, please."

If you came to university hoping to find a society that aligns with your values, has a lasting impact outside the Cambridge bubble, and creates long-term friendships, then perhaps May Week Alternative is the right society for you.

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