Gifts for Students

Are you looking for a gift to kick off the new semester, banish the midterm blues, or inspire the bored of education? For high marks in gift giving, take note of the following.

Send school supplies "wrapped" in a backpack or portable file box. Include notebooks, pens, a calculator, computer diskettes, a stapler, paper clips, a tape dispenser, and the like.

Order a pizza delivered at some time during the finals-week cramming session or some other busy time during the semester.

Give tickets to a basketball, baseball, football, or other such game. If your gift budget can handle it, season tickets would also be nice.

Give tickets to a campus concert or theater series. Prepaid movie tickets to a theater on or near campus also make great gifts.

Laundry, dry-cleaning, and housekeeping services make much-appreciated gifts.

Give a gift certificate to the university bookstore where, in addition to textbooks, students can choose from an array of clothing, household, and entertainment items.

Round-trip airfare home—or to another destination—for the holidays, spring break, or summer vacation would make a fantastic gift.

To a dorm dweller, give a microwave oven or mini-refrigerator.

Give a sturdy safe for storing personal items and valuables—jewelry, diaries, personal correspondence, transcripts, medical records, computer disks and zip drives, prescription medications, and the like.

Set up a credit card account in the student's name—with a predetermined limit and other ground rules, of course. (The real gift here is the tremendous amount of trust you demonstrate in the student. Many happy returns!)

Arrange for an internship or summer job. Or introduce the student to a professional in his or her field of study.

Where they are allowed on campus, give a bike, a moped, a skateboard, or in-line skates to help the student get around campus in a hurry.

Give an oversize poster of his favorite ad, television or movie celebrity, vacation spot, or sports interest to hang in his dorm room or apartment. Be sure to choose a poster that will not be offensive to his roommates.

Bookmark Sherri