After the launch of “Shape Your Impact,” Dance Marathon 25 hopes to use Student Organization Spotlights to acknowledge the efforts of their peers and collaborate in many different ways.

“In the past, [Dance Marathon] had a delegate program where individuals from student orgs and [Fraternity/Sorority Life] acted as representatives or liaisons to their respective groups if they were also involved in Dance Marathon,” said Sierra Jones, the Dance Marathon campus-relations director. “Although this was a great way to connect our organization to others, there wasn’t much of a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Dance Marathon 25 will give shout-outs on social media to various student organizations, alongside co-hosting different events on campus, to gauge interest in maintaining the impact outside the Dance Marathon organization, Jones said.

“Overall, everyone is given more opportunities to explore how Dance Marathon can be supporting our peers and creating a more positive culture,” she said. “Our hope is that dancers carry on a stronger tradition of showing love and support to student orgs and [Fraternity/Sorority Life] and the UI community.”

Alongside the student-organization highlights, the Campus Relations Committee was established to promote partnership with other UI student organizations, said Elexis Brietbart, the Dance Marathon executive chair.

“We created the Campus Relations Committee in order to make our organization more open and inclusive to all individuals on our campus,” Brietbart said. “One aspect of this committee centers on reaching out to student organizations to create mutually beneficial relationships with them.”

RELATED: Dance Marathon hopes to ‘Shape Your Impact’ in Big Event

Dance Marathon 25 seeks new student organizations to get involved and create relationships for future events and potential partnerships beyond Dance Marathon 25’s Big Event, Brietbart said.

“Creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment can lead to individuals recognizing their worth and their own abilities to make a difference in a stranger’s life,” Jones said. “We hope this comes true this year as student organizations shape their impact.”

The student organizations that Dance Marathon 25 hopes to build relationships with include Colleges Against Cancer, Red Shamrock Student Organization, Be the Match, Camp Kesem, UI Wishmakers, and Love Your Melon, all of which share similar values and connections with cancer.

“In the ongoing attempt to spread awareness, both [Colleges Against Cancer] and Dance Marathon hope to unite the entire university in the battle against cancer,” said Cameron Graber, the president of Colleges Against Cancer. “We hope that this newfound collaboration with Dance Marathon will help to unite these organizations, providing an even bigger platform to raise funding and encourage support.”

Graber stressed the importance of working on the same team, as Dance Marathon and Colleges Against Cancer both have plans to spread awareness in the entire university.

“We hope that engaging more with Dance Marathon will allow us to educate students on the life-saving procedure of marrow donation along with how to join the registry,” said Natalie Lyster, the president of Be the Match.

Lyster also said many of its organization’s donors are Dance Marathon kids who attend the Big Event.

“We hope to create a change in culture surrounding the way we collaborate with student orgs and [Fraternity/Sorority Life],” Jones said. “Creating a more inclusive and welcoming environment can lead to individuals recognizing their worth and their own abilities to make a difference in a stranger’s life. We hope this comes true this year as student organizations shape their impact.”